Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

From Tony and Sabrina

My Flock

Baby pig isn't a baby no more, but she is still fairly small. 

And he is Lil' Pig

Lil' Pig Rooting Around

Tails and Bubba

One of the chicks I posted about a while back. It's a rooster now...LoL We ended up with 3 roosters from the hatched eggs. We kept two of them. So far, they are not showing any aggression towards humans, but if they do, they're going in the pot!

Here is crazy Clucky.

Pigs are Friendly Creatures

My pigs seem to get along with everybody. Cats, dogs, chickens, and even rabbits. Here is a picture of my French Angora rabbit enjoying a meal with the pigs.

Baby with my puppy Bubba.

Baby Pig Can Sit

I watched all kinds of YouTube videos showing people easily teaching a pig to sit. So, I went into this thinking it would be as easy as training a puppy. Wrong. From my experience, it depends on the pig. Lil' Pig will not sit for me, and he is still a smart pig. He is very loving and curious. Now Baby pig, it was so easy to teach her to sit. She loves food more than Lil' Pig I should mention. All it took was a Fruit Loop and some hand motions and she has it memorized. Lil' Pig has no interest in sitting. At all. I should also mention that Lil' Pig is a male Juliana and Baby pig is a female Vietnamese Pot-Belly. Too me, the female is way easier to train. Anyway, here is the video I made!

I'm back

It has been awhile since my last post, but I plan on uploading some pictures here soon.

Our Hen is Such a Good Mommy

One of the hens we got from Tractor Supply turned out to be an excellent mother. After she finished sitting and her and the babies jumped out of the nesting box, we moved them to a smaller box away from the other hens. And, we've been watching them grow and mimic their mommy. God's animals are amazing to watch!

The hen calls the chicks when it is time to eat. She lets them eat before she does. And, if something is too big, she breaks it up for them.

She is digging in the dirt, and they mimic her and dig their bottoms in too!

Here they are following mommy!

This cutie just needed to rest!

Building a New House For Pigs

 We started building a bigger house for the pigs today. I can't wait until it's finished. 

We Had 6 Chicks

Right after our White Leghorn hen went broody and hatched one single chick, one of the Tractor Supply hens went broody and hatched 6 chicks. They are so cute! One came out a grey color which I've never seen before so I'm excited to see what her color will turn out to be as an adult. It looks like she hatched some of the Barred Rock's eggs because we have 3 black chicks, 1 greyish colored, and 2 yellow.

One of the Barred Rock hens is acting like she might go broody next. Hopefully, one of the babies will be a rooster because we ended up putting mean rooster in the frying pan. He got so mean that we couldn't get eggs without him trying to attack. I made a new rule after that rooster experience.....any rooster that relentlessly tries to attack is going straight in the frying pan. I'm wanting to get a Buff Orpington rooster and see if they are better.

Here is the babies. Two of the black chicks were out with momma hen when I took this pix.

Lil' Pig is 5 Months

We decided to break out the scales and weigh Lil' Pig. He weighs 42 lbs! You can see Baby Pig's head for a comparison of sorts in the picture above. He turned 23 weeks yesterday...so just over 5 months. I seen other pictures and their Juliana pigs seem to be smaller at this age. But I've also seen pictures of Juliana pigs that look exactly like mine.  Honestly, it wouldn't matter to me if he got 300 lbs. as long as he remains the kind, gentle pig that he is. He is awesome!

This picture was taking shortly after bring Baby Pig home. Her skin was super dry. It's cleared up now.

Baby Pig is doing well too. We are going to name her Baby because we've called her Baby Pig so much that she thinks that's her name anyway....LoL Baby Pig is a female pot-belly, and I plan on her getting big because I saw her parents. I just weaned her off milk. She is more feisty than Lil' Pig was. She may be tiny, but she won't take crap from Lil' Pig.....like him stealing her food....LoL

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!

Drawing

Today is a slow day. I don't have no work lined-up, so I think I might draw something. I've been thinking about offering some free graphics, but have never had the time. I might get something done today. God bless!

Tiny Garden

I'm only doing a small garden this year. I put the new chicken coop and running pen where my old garden area used to be. I'm planning on doing raised garden beds only from now on. I might do buckets as well. I don't have a tiller yet. Tony and me hand tilled with a pickaxe our last garden about 10 years ago. I'm not doing that again....LoL I have to keep my stuff covered or else the chickens will tear up. They almost killed my potatoes!

My potatoes. 

Greens

 

Beets.

Lettuce and Kale

My Rooster is Mean

So, my rooster is meaner than a rattlesnake now. I'm not sure what happened to that good baby rooster I once had....LoL We have to carry a walking stick any more because he keeps trying to attack Tony....LoL He is good at calling the hens though. He gets them to follow him into their spaces. We like to let them out of their original coop in the evenings to free range. Some go into another fenced part of the yard and some wonder on their own like Clucky. Clucky is a loner. I think one of the white hens is going broody. I didn't expect it, but she's been sitting on eggs. Tony takes her food and water. It would be cool to have chicks. We thought about buying an incubator, but haven't yet. Them Production Reds have given us more eggs than we could ever eat. We give them away and still have too many!

Lil' Pig Chowing on Clovers

Jumping on the Bed

Lil' Pig can jump on the bed now! Pigs can jump!

6 Week Old Juliana Pig Rooting

What I've Learned About Mini Pigs (Juliana Pigs)

As of today, I've had my Lil' Pig for 24 days. He is 6 weeks old. He is litter box trained and completely weaned off milk. So today, I'm going to post some things I've learned about mini pigs.

• First: Pigs make noise all day! I didn't know this, and I was thinking that he was hungry all the time. I did some reading and it's normal... thank goodness! My pig makes all different kinds of noises. It's hard to describe them. He makes happy noises. Hungry noises. Playing noises. Little short barking type noise when running. When I get better at understanding his noises, I'll post more about them. 

• Second: My pig LOVES attention. You can't give him too much attention. He'd let you scratch his belly literally all day long if you'd let him. 

• Third: Pigs don't naturally love to take a bath. I thought my pig would love taking a bath. He didn't. Giving a mini-pig a bath is just like giving a new puppy a bath. They don't like it at first. Hopefully, my pig will get used to it.

• Fourth: Pigs can run fast. Most people don't think of pigs as runners, but they can book it on them stubby, little legs! My Lil' Pig can run fast, and he loves to run! I walk my pig around the yard daily and he runs and plays. He has our walking path memorized. I haven't started working on leash training. My yard is big enough to let him walk freely while supervised. I plan on leash training soon so that I can take him to parks and on nature walks with me.

Hanging With the Bunnies

• Fifth: Pigs are stubborn and sassy. I decided to start some basic training with my pig. I want to teach him to sit. I got him to do it one time so far. When he decides he doesn't want to do it, he'll give me this sassy look and just walk off shaky his booty! Pigs listen when they want to unlike a dog. 

• Sixth: Pigs are smart. I litter box trained my pig in under two weeks. He memorized our walking path. He knows his name. He'll come inside when I tell him to after play time. 

• Seventh: Pigs are playful. My Lil' Pig reminds me of a puppy in many ways. Like a puppy, my pig will try to play and bite gently. And like you'd stop a puppy from biting, you tell the pig no. He will push toys around. He even bit the nose off of a cheap toy I got him just like a puppy. Unlike a puppy, a pig tends to push or drag his toys around with his nose. I got a cat tent for my pig and he likes to shove a stuffed rabbit into the cat tent for some reason. 

Soaking Up Some Sun

 Well, that's all I'm going to post for now. Enjoy your weekend!

Lil' Pig is Litter Box Trained

Lil' Pig is now officially litter box trained! It took around 15 days to completely train him. I had to stay on it. I watched him closely and when I saw him peeing on the floor, I would pick him up and put in the box. I also put him in the box every time he woke up from a nap. I also weaned him off of milk which really helped because he don't have to pee as much any more. He has free access to water, but doesn't drink it like he was drinking milk. Litter box training is not as easy as some people say, but I would say it is faster than trying to train a little dog like a Chihuahua.

When I first started training Lil' Pig, one woman had wrote to just leave the box out and the pig will just start using it. Not true. If you expect this, then you might be disappointed. Not all pigs are the same, so some might start doing it that quickly, but some will not. If you stay on it and are patient, then your pig will learn to use the box however.

Lil' Pig Hanging With Baby Girl

Lil Pig Has Been Here 10 Days

     I got my Lil' Pig 10 days ago. When I first brought him home, he'd squeal like crazy when I picked him up. Now, he might squeal just slightly at first, but nowhere near like it was. He is getting used to me. I thought I got a defective pig when I first heard him squeal! I was thinking no wonder he's the last one left! Then, I learned that most all do that!

    I wouldn't say that Lil' Pig is completely litter box trained. I still have to coax him in the box basically every time he has to use it. I catch him when he first wakes up, then I coax him to use the box. He rarely uses the box on his own. He has, and he knows how, but I still have to coax him. I put a pee pad under the litter box, and he usually will pee on the pad at night while I'm sleeping.

     He eats pellets now. When I first brought him home, he was drinking milk only. I started mixing pellets with his milk which he would drink the milk and ignore the pellet paste. So, I just put out a small kitten bowl with some pellets in it and changed his milk times. Changing the milk times is what encouraged him to start eating his pellets. I changed it from him getting milk every 3-4 hours to him getting milk 4 times per day, and now we are down to 3 times per day. In between, he can root and eat pellets. He has started drinking water some too. Not much, but he don't need to because he has milk still. Soon, I will be dropping the milk to twice a day until completely weaned.

     He loves going outside with me and my husband. My husband and I are very outdoorsy people, so he gets outside a lot. I haven't leashed trained yet. He follows us around on his own. He doesn't want to be alone, so if we get out of site, he comes running to find us.

     I plan on starting some basic training in the next week or two. I was wanting to wait until he started using the litter box on his own before I moved on to the the next thing. Plus, he is just a little over 4 weeks. He hasn't had any treats yet....just pellets and milk. I'm saving treats and goodies for training!

    Overall, I'm so happy to have this lil' fellow in my life. It's like having a little toddler around. My son is grown and my daughter will be 18 next year, so I really enjoy his company. I can tell my husband loves him too. Lil' Pig just fit right in with our family. He is a blessing!
    

Litter Box Training a Mini-Pig- Day 5

     I watched Lil' Pig use his litter box yesterday all by himself. So, he knows to use it. He still doesn't use it every time however. Yesterday, I took him outside to use the bathroom too. He loves our trips outside. I'm also starting to let him venture more around the house, but only while supervised since he still pees on the floor.

     I've been laying a lid out with some pellets on it for the last couple days. At first, he wasn't interested in pellets at all, but yesterday, I saw him finally start eating some. I've been soaking the pellets in his milk at feeding time to start weaning him off the milk. When I first brought him home, he was eating 4 oz of milk every 2-3 hours. The bag of Nurse All says he should be eating 6-8 oz three times a day at 3 weeks old to weaning. So now, I feed him 6 oz milk mixed with pellets (completely dissolved) at 7am, 12pm, 5pm, 10pm. In the next week, I plan on making the pellet mixture thicker, paste like, and change his feeding to 3 times per day, plus he can root in the yard on our visits out there. I'll keep him on the paste mixture for about a week or so, and hopefully, he will be ready to move to pellets and vegetables, plus treats.

     I'm waiting to get him weaned and litter box trained before I start on other training. I want to teach him sit, come, and stay first. I also want to leash train. Right now, we just walk freely in my yard. He follows me everywhere. I want to leash train so I can take him to the river and the park. I want to start that pretty early because I imagine it's not going to be easy!

     Until next time.....

Litter Box Training a Mini-Pig- Day 4

Lil' Pig Soaking in the Sun

Yesterday went slightly better than the day before. Lil' Pig still peed on the floor, but he used the box some too. I used to have to pick up Lil' Pig to take him outside, but now he will following me outside. I say, "Come on Lil' Pig. Let's go pee-pee," and he follows me right out the door! That is so cool! So most of last night I took him outside to pee, until it started raining. Once he felt the rain, he ran straight back to the door...LoL Overnight, he pooped outside of box, but I was able to get him to go into it this morning. Strangely enough, I think he is starting to understand the box is for using the bathroom. I didn't have to as much coaxing this morning. I think he might get it in a few more days. I'm feeling more optimistic today than I was yesterday!

My Best Friend Lil' Pig

Lil' Pig Goes Outside

Li'l Pals Latex Soccer Ball, Perfect for Puppies and Toy Breeds, Green (2-Pack)

Litter Box Training a Mini-Pig- Day 3

    Day 2 went worst than Day 1. He just seemed to use the floor and not the box. Last night, I decided to leave vinegar under paper on the spots where he peed to deter him. So now, I have 6 pieces of vinegar paper on the floor. He does not use the same spot. He chooses a different spot and not the box! I did manage to get him to poop in the box this morning. It is definitely not as easy as some suggest. I'm thinking about just picking him up and putting outside every time he wakes up, and just forget about litter box training all together.

Lil' Pig's Adventure Outside

Lil' Pig Strutting his stuff

     Yesterday, we took Lil' Pig outside. We put a board at my backdoor so he'd be able to get over the step to walk outside. He wouldn't walk outside, so I picked him up and put him out there. He loves rooting in the dirt. And, this Lil' pig can run! We walked him around to get exercise and he can really book it with them little legs! He follows us everywhere. He never ran off, and he'd never let us get too far out of his site. He also walked back into the house by himself! Yay!!

     We took him to meet the chickens. The chickens were like, "What in the world is that thing?" They kept their distance and crackled when he was near. The rooster gave him the side eye. This is gross, but apparently, Lil' Pig likes to poop at the coop. I was thankful it was outside and not inside!

Lil' Pig Meeting the Chickens

Here is my lil' fellow following my husband. He loves running with my honey! Don't he look so tiny!

Tony Walking Lil' Pig

Taking a break for some luvin'. Pigs love to be scratched!

Luvin' Time

Pigs love them some mud! And lucky for my pig, it has been raining like crazy here lately leaving the yard muddy so he can easily root in the mud!

Litter Box Training a Mini-Pig- Day 2

   

    Lil' Pig only had one accident during the night, and I was able to coax him into the box this morning before his breakfast. Yesterday, he was still trying to pee outside of the box, and I would pick him up and put him in the box every time I caught him. Boy, did he get mad when I put him in box! I think he is learning the word pee-pee though as I say it when he is in the box. This morning, I said let's go pee-pee, and I sat near the box and pointed my finger to show him how to get in. He went in and used it, so I'm really hoping he gets the concept soon!

     When he does use the bathroom on the floor, I clean it with a paper towel, then put the paper towel in his box. This is to help with the scent. I clean the pee spot with vinegar afterwards hoping to deter him from using it there again. It is not easy like I read on sooooo many sites. But, the week ain't over yet! One lady said they could be trained in a week. That is my goal!

Litter Box Training Mini-Pig Day 1 continued....

It is now 1:10 pm. In my last post I told you that I took the wood chips out and put a pad in the litter box. Lil' Pig used the litter box several times before he started peeing outside the box again.

He eventually ended up like this.....

So, I decided to put just wood chips back in the box and watch him like a hawk. If he wakes up, I coax him in the box. If he moves trying to pee outside of box, I move the box towards him. If I catch him peeing in the floor, I pick him up and put in the box. I also started giving him a spoonful of his Manna Pro NurseAll Non-Medicated Milk Replacer when he uses the box. My plan for the rest of the day is to keep him close and try to make sure he uses the box.