I woke up this morning thinking maybe the pigs I have in my fenced backyard may have escaped...they did not. They did root around a bit, one section of my fence line won't have to be weeded for awhile. We gave them some more dog food for breakfast this morning and scratch grains, I don't happen to have any pig feed handy and they didn't care for the chicken feed I gave them yesterday. One of my Facebook friends said they need five to eight pounds of food a day each...I guess it is a good thing I just got a 55 pound bag of dog food. My husband went and talked to more neighbors to see if anyone was missing any pigs...so far we have not found the owners.
They are friendly pigs, they like getting squirted with the water hose, like being scratched on their ears. My dogs got out in the backyard for a minute with them, Sophie barked at them, Kensie wagged her tail, and Bailee has the shock collar on and didn't approach them or bark at them...she is my hog dog, and a hunter...I thought it was necessary. I wouldn't mind keeping them if we had a proper place to do it, we have discussed other farm animals but we need the money to feed them too. I am not sure how big these will get, but from what my Facebook friends said, they are between 3 and 4 months old. One of my neighbors has a pig at least 5 feet long...they are not his pigs and he told us good luck feeding them!
I am not real sure what we will do with them, but I don't want to keep them in my backyard forever. If we kept them they would need a pen of some sort, that is a bit more sturdy than our current fencing. They probably would need a house too, it does get cold here...but I am not real sure how hardy pigs are. I guess I should read up on them and find out. My husband went to work...I wonder if he will come home with pig food?
I have chores to get done, but it is already hot outside. I wet down an area in the yard with some shade and hosed them down already. I may post a found add on the Trading Post and on some local Facebook sites. We have gotten no calls from the Deputy, no neighbors are missing and pigs.
I built a sturdy gate for my lower garden area, after much running around we finely got the pigs moved, have pool setup in the garden and a half barrel full of water. Hopefully they won't escape tonight either. I am hoping they will eat the weeds in there, I gave them more dog food but I will buy some pig chow as soon as I can get to town. I keep wondering if pigs are suppose to be tagged or tattooed or something for identification purposes, I have not found any markings or tattoos, but I have not examined them really closely but I am still a little afraid of them. They can flip 25 gallon containers of water over easily and I imagine it would hurt pretty badly if they ran into me or stepped on my foot. I will hang some shade cloth so they have shade all day out there and if no one claims them I may put up a structure for them to get out of the weather...I can use the parts from my old duck house that I just took apart.
I wonder if pigs like carrots? I need to make friends with them...it would probably be easier to bribe them to get them to follow me, I guess I will learn about pigs next. I thought my first bigger animal might be a goat, but...I don't know anything about pigs or goats yet.
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