Quick Reference Shortcuts

Of all the things that are going to affect the outcome of your decision to have a pet pig, environment is the single most important. Take the time to understand what is needed and place him in a suitable environment and you will have a healthy happy friend for many many years.

Quick reference shortcuts:

Adding a second pig

Arthritis and aging pigs

End of Life care

Eye conditions

Fences

Health topics

Hoof care

Housing

Medicine chest

Neutering and sexing (Why spay? see our actual pathology statistics on spays)

Pasturing

Water and pools

Yard:

A 50'x100' yard with plenty of shade and edible grasses (dandelions are a favorite food if your yard has some) is a minimum for long term care. No herbicides or pesticides. Pigs love exploring, so if in addition to his yard you have another area, perhaps the front yard, where he can explore and sample new things occasionally, all the better. This can be a supervised outing time, a walk in the woods, a visit to the neighbors, etc. Just a break from his normal routine. Coming inside can accomplish the same thing.

Pastures

In a farm setting there are a few special considerations. Woven wire fencing is a must. They are curious and will wander some. Females in heat will go looking for a male. So a good fence is essential. They do not mix safely with horses, donkeys, llamas. They are annoyed by and can be hurt by goats and sheep. They do well with cattle and fowl. But pigs are extremely clean animals so housing them with animals that leave droppings everywhere is a bad plan. They need a clean and private sleeping area. A pigs bed is his castle.

Housing:

A tight, well insulated house is necessary in cold climates. These pigs came from a sub tropical environment. Young pigs have little fat to protect them; older pigs, especially in groups or two or more sleeping together can tolerate much more cold. Build a large enough house to accommodate your pig comfortably, but not a lot of space for heat loss. A 6'x6'x4' high makes a good size for one to four pigs. In colder climates where temps drop below 0, insulate all walls, floor and ceiling with standard 3-1/2" fiberglass insulation. Interior and exterior plywood walls. A solid floor of 1" boards or plywood. The door should be faced away from prevailing winds and have 2 heavy rugs for doors, one outside and one inside.

A reflective heat lamp can be suspended or a ceramic light fixture installed for use in heating should temperatures be below zero. Use standard 150 or 200 watt light bulbs, not heat bulbs. Keep light at least 2 feet above the pig.

WARNING. Any kind of light is a fire hazard. To be safe use the special heaters made especially for pigs instead. These are available on line from ENasco and from Jeffers Pet. (See link of the Essentials" page. ). Pig heater, installed on wall so it doesn't get overheated under hay, is shown at right.

Fill the house with straw or hay and keep it 16 inches deep. They will bury themselves under it and be nice and warm. Bedding won't last long as it becomes pulverized and flat so keep a check on it. Add a blanket to the bedding for extra protection. If you live in a severe climate where sub zero is common, it is best to plan an indoor sleeping area. If you live in a farm setting and have a barn, build a house inside the barn and throw hay over it as well as in it. Or give them access, in the dry, to a roll or big pile of hay and they will burrow into it. With multiple pigs no heat is usually required in a good barn with plenty of hay.

Water:

Besides drinking water (use flat bottomed shallow pans made for watering small stock and put out multiple dishes in case they tip one over.) they need water for cooling off.

A stream, a pond, a wading pool, or a mudhole can all provide the necessary hot weather relief. Pigs cannot sweat or pant; they must have water they can immerse in to cool off. This is essential. Heatstroke is common. And they must have mud. Just water is not enough. Mud provides insect protection, sunscreen and lubrication to prevent scaly skin.

"City Pig" Pool piggy drawing compliments of Victoria Holt

For the best pool money can buy go to PAHeartland for their specially manufactured piggy pools. They have soft sides for easy entrance and napping, are low and skid proof so pigs aren't afraid to step into them and are virtually indestructible. Easy to empty and clean every day as well. We had our first one donated a year or so ago and now have 3 and wish I had more! I use a small one in our Special Care building for a water trough since many of the crippled pigs can't easily steady themselves to drink from a dish.. this allows them to rest on its edge while drinking. They come in 3 sizes. Email Joan will fill you in on colors and sizes and prices. They are about $45 and up and well worth it. We have one in each elder and special needs pen as these are the only kind an arthritic or elderly pig can get into.

Fencing:

Fencing must be tight at the bottom to keep pigs secure. Portable hog panels (or the higher cattle panels) are the best fence as they are too heavy for a pig to pick up with his nose. If fences are loose a board running all around the bottom will work. Once a pig knows a fence is weak he will keep pushing on it. If he tries the fence and it is secure he'll accept that and usually not try again. Older neutered pigs seldom try to wander unless food is scarce where they are.

Chicken wire, dog fence, garden fence, none of these types of fencing will hold a pig who wants out.

Woven fence wire, if put up by a fencing professional or someone who has the knowledge and the tools to stretch it properly, can be suitable but as it loosens with age it will become unsafe. The only really secure fences are hog panels, combo panels, cattle panels or a wood fence. A wood fence, with the bottom 2 inches from the ground and the boards 4 inches apart will work. Also a picket fence if it is suitably anchored to posts. With woven wire or any fence requiring wooden fence posts, the posts need to be a minimum of 26 inches in the ground. Post hole diggers come in two types, regular or deep hole, either of which will work. Set the post in about 6 inches of concrete, let set up, fill the hole with a mixture of 2 inch rocks and dirt, tamped with an iron tamping bar until the post cannot move even a hair in any direction. Then you can add wire.

A panel fence is easier, better, more secure and less costly in the long run. The panels cost $ 18 to 24 dollars each. They are available at any farm supply store and are delivered by the store. They are 16 feet long so cannot be hauled in a pickup truck. The store may charge you $10 or $ 20 to bring them to you and its money well spent! The posts for panels can be wood or metal. The metal panels are quickly driven with a post driver (about $17 at farm supplies or Lowes type stores) and fastened with 14 ga galvanized or plastic coated wire. The post only needs to go deep enough to bury the barbed bottom plate (so all you see is the post above ground)

If you use un-coated wire it will rust off in a year and you will have to replace it. Search out the proper plastic coated or galvanized wire. It MUST be rigid wire, not stranded. Cut 6 inch sections of wire and using pliers twist tightly around the panel stay and the post. Apply 3 twists of wire per post. For wood posts use 2" staples and nail panels in place. You can easily put up 20 panels in a few hours. That’s an 80 foot by 80 foot pen!

End the panel at the gate posts and put a heavy duty 4 foot gate. The light weight chain link dog pen gates won't last a week. A pig will chew the wire right out of them. A heavy duty gate from a farm supply store will work fine.

Fence summary: The fence's purpose is primarily to keep dogs out and secondly to keep piggy in.

Foolproof fences are non existent. Here we use cattle panels for all our fencing. Dogs and coyotes can't climb them. Anything small enough to go through them presents very little danger to an adult pig. they are 52 " high which is high enough to deter most everyone, even deer which are a major problem with pigs because of the Bratislava (leptospirosis) risk and the meningial wormsthey bring in .. be SURE to vaccinate and keep the pigs wormed regularly if you have deer in the area at all. We are glad to see our Great Pyrenees keep all animals out so nothing can bring in disease.

When we first moved to this bigger farm in a more rural area, for areas where we were worried about something digging in we cut cattle panels into 3 pieces horizontally and laid them flat on the ground.. wiring one edge to the upright panels and staking the other side. Its been several years and nothing has ever moved one of these flat panels. The weight of the panel prevents anyone's nose from lifting them up, even without the stakes. so they can dig all they want and get nowhere

Health and Care topics

Pigs are very healthy animals by nature. They can resist infection better than any animal. .Keeping a pig healthy starts with daily grazing.. Its how their immune systems stay active.

Routine care involves annual vaccinations and periodic worming.

Vaccinate for Erysipelas, Atrophic Rhinitis, Pasteurella and Haemopholous and Strep Suis. Your vet may recommend others. Some vets are now recommending that pigs be vaccinated as youngsters and then not vaccinated again for several years, if ever. If not exposed to other pigs this may be a safe practice. In the country a rabies shot may be a good thing as well .

A lot of controversy exists about the frequency of vaccinations.. whatever the schedule, you are attempting to prevent some deadly killers.. like erysipelas.. These pigs were caught early and survived. Their sister did not.

The sloughing off of huge pieces of skin is one form that this disease takes after its high fever. It can also kill quickly or leave a pig permanently lamed.

Worming with Ivomec can be done both by injection and by oral administration. Putting the medicine in any tomato based food, jelly or mayonnaise sandwiches or fruit juice will make it easy for him to take. Other wormers may or may not have the specific medication for lung worms. If you use another wormer and your pig coughs you may be missing the lung worms. Both of these products at right do the same job; one is the brand name Ivomec, the other the generic. Be sure it is labeled For Cattle and Swine or for Swine and is the injectible, not the pour-on. The injectible is what you use orally in a sandwich. The dosage of 1cc per 75 pounds is what you use orally as well as by injection. Some recommend a slightly higher dose for oral use, 1 cc for every 60 pounds. These products are very safe.

External parasites are limited to lice (unusual in pet pigs) and mites. Pigs scratch for enjoyment and when they are losing their winter hair so a bit of daily scratching does not indicate a problem If they scratch behind the ear regularly look for ear mites. Lice will result in bare patches and intense scratching. You will see the eggs as white specks along and behind the front shoulders and if you look closely you will see the lice as well as they are large critters. Ivomec kills lice as well as internal parasites so you shouldn't be troubled with them if you worm with it. . There are also dusts such as Permectin which kill lice. However, be sure that you don't use them when the weather is warm and the pig goes regularly into his pool or mudhole. He will drink the water and ingest poison. Poison is poison, whether you are a person or a pig. Don't eat it. If you must powder him in hot weather then keep him away from his pool for a day and then wash him off thoroughly before allowing him to use it freely. And watch that run off water so it doesn't pool someplace where he will find it.

Dry Skin: Many pigs have dry skin. Nature made mud for that very purpose. It moisturizes and protects from sun and bites. Be sure your pig has free access to mud to keep his skin in condition. Also useful is Aloe cream. Farnam has a product called Aloe Heal which is excellent for healing wounds and dry skin. Good for your cuts and scrapes as well. Find it at any horse supply store. Dry flaky skin is often caused by the lack of fat in the diet.. be sure you aren't over zealous in trying to keep your pig thin by feeding a very low fat diet. Fat is essential to health. Obesity is bad but pots are naturally round and carry a thick layer of fat. Adding a capsule of Flax Seed Oil or Fish Oil can be of help.