Peppa's Dry Skin

When I first got Peppa, she was caked in mud and had severely dry skin. At first, I thought it might be mange. It's not scabby and is slowly flaking off, so from what I read is normal for pigs at 1-2 weeks. I gave her a bath as soon as I got her home and started applying baby lotion. Today, I gave her another bath and applied olive oil. Her skin is looking better and better. I've had her for 4 days so far and her skin is looking better and better.

Buying an Unweaned Baby Pig

In the picture, I was hoping Lil' Pig and the kitten would show baby pig how to drink milk. It didn't work! This was the first day right after we got baby pig home. You can see all the dry skin on her. Most of that is gone, but she still has some dry skin flaking off.

I'm going to start by saying that I do not recommend buying an un-weaned pig or a pig below the age of 6 weeks. Yeah, I know the so-called crazy type of animal lovers will say 8 weeks, and yeah, they are probably right....but 6 weeks is okay too. This post is for new owners who purchased a baby pig under this age. When I first bought Lil' Pig, ALL of the ads for baby Juliana pigs were stating that their pigs were 3 weeks old. I figured this must be common in the pig world. The breeder of Lil' Pig had already got him started lid feeding, so I was easily able to continue that after bringing him home. I never had any problems.

The next baby I got was younger than that! She was a little over a week old. In my mind, I was thinking that I would just bring her home and start her on lid feeding. Well, it doesn't work out that easily. If you plan on buying an un-weaned pig, be warned. You will have to have a lot of patience. I get my milk from Tractor Supply and try to feed the baby. She doesn't eat it and in no way seems interested in trying to. We go out and buy a bottle. Pigs do not just latch onto a bottle of milk and start sucking....LoL They will squeal and scream and you'll have to gently force the nipple into their mouth and hold the mouth gently rubbing it to try and get them to suck. It is no easy task. Personally, I decided the skip the bottle and go with a spoon.

A baby pig will not just start drinking out of a spoon neither. They will not just automatically pick it up. And you have to be super careful as to not give them too much that they choke. It is a process. For the first day, I basically have to open the baby pig's mouth and spoon feed every couple hours. Late on the second day, I start putting the spoonful of milk in front of the baby's face. She licks it on her own finally. I also notice her take a drink of water. I put some warm milk in a lid and she finally starts drinking it. By the next morning (third day), she was completely drinking milk from a lid.

The first day was awful. The baby was getting used to new surroundings and was very whiny. If you left her sight, she'd scream and run after you. By day 3, she is used to everything. Little Pig has even calmed down and loves her company. She don't squeal when you pick her up. Little Pig squealed like crazy when we'd pick him up as a baby. It took awhile for him to stop that. Little Pig has helped a lot with training. The baby follows him in the litter box. Baby pig was easier to litter box train than Lil' Pig by a long shot. I'm so glad we got her! God bless all! I'm out!

P.S. We decided to name baby pig---Peppa.

What is lid feeding?

 Lid feeding was a term I was unfamiliar with until I got a pig. It literally means to feed your baby pig from a butter bowl lid or something similar. When I got Lil' Pig, he was only 3 weeks old and the breeder had already started him on eating from a lid. You can buy NurseAll milk from Tractor Supply. Baby pigs do not just naturally start licking the milk from the lid. So if you're buying a pig that has never ate off a lid, you will have to work with the baby to get him to eat from lid. By the way, I don't recommend buying a baby pig before it's weaned from its mother. When I first decided to buy a baby pig, I thought it might be normal to buy at a young age because many breeders were selling that way. If the breeder has started lid feeding, then it is fairly easy to continue, but if the breeder is taking the baby straight from the mother with no introduction to a bottle or lid feeding, then you are going to have your work cut out for you. Be warned!

I saw an ad online from a breeder selling pot-belly pigs, and I decided to purchase one so Little Pig would have a playmate. When I showed up at the house, the lady brought out two baby pigs covered in mud. Seriously, they were filthy! Then she starts talking about pig lice and picks a bug off one of the babies! I was ready to run back to my car and kick it out of there at first! I didn't want to bring home no disease ridden pig to get Little Pig sick! I read horror stories about people getting pigs with mange. I read it looked the color of rust, so in the back of my mind, I'm wondering is this mud on the babies or mange? I'm happy to say it was dirt and severely dry skin. I'm still working on the baby's dry skin. It's slowly coming off. When I first brought Little Pig home, he was itching himself on everything. I had no experience with pigs, so I thought he might have mites or something. I started treating his skin with baby lotion and he hardly ever itches anymore. Just the regular occasion itch. Little Pig's skin looks good! Let me get back to my story....LoL

Back to the story.....I hold both of the babies. Neither were squealing which was a positive sign. But one was more frigidity that the other, so I chose the calmer pig. This little baby had the best temperament, but I was still scared of it being diseased. The breeder asks me if I want to see the parents, so we walk through an unfinished barn area to see the parents. The pigs had made a mud hole and were filthy. It was hard to see their colors good because of the mud. The female pig was jumping on the male pig acting aggressive. The breeder tells me not the pet the female because she bites. The pigs are huge. I'm guessing 300 lbs. I'm thinking do I really want a pig that will get this big? I have all these questions running through my mind as I watch all the other baby pigs running around with their parents.

I decide to go ahead and get the baby. I figure if it has something, then I'll just treat it. The baby is awesome on the way back home. I'm instantly in love with her. My husband and I give her a bath immediately to kill off any pig lice before introducing her to Little Pig. The mud was caked on! I started applying baby lotion and noticed what looked like mud was dry skin and with each lotion treatment it started looking better. I figure it will take a week or two to get her skin looking good, but I'm slowing seeing the dry skin come off. In my next post, I'm going to write about how hard it is to get a baby to take a bottle or lid feed. Stay tuned!

Chicken Poop and Tomato Plants

We decided to only do a small garden this year, but I've been adding more and more to it here lately. We decided to do some potted vegetables. I have cucumbers, bush beans, watermelon, potatoes, etc. all in buckets or pots. We used a barrel for the tomatoes and dug up dirt out of the chicken coop that obviously had their poop in it. Apparently tomatoes love chicken poop dirt because they are HUGE now! I used rabbit poop in my cucumbers and topped with peat moss and they are looking good too! I'm going to have some viddles this year!

Little Pig and My Mean Arse Rooster

The only person/animal that my rooster likes is Little Pig. It is the strangest thing ever. They get along perfectly! We separated the rooster from the hens because he was getting so mean that we couldn't get the eggs without him attacking. He is mean! The rooster will attack dogs too. But Little Pig, he don't attack. Plus, Little Pig was finding ways to escape the fence, but now that the rooster is in there with him, Little Pig don't try to get out. Amazing really! I never would have thought, but my mean rooster and my sweet pig are BFF for life it seems!

We Had a Chick!

We had our first baby chick! We've never tried to have chicks. We noticed the hen went broody, but that's happened before and we didn't have chicks. We did this time! One single chick!