Baby pigs $40?

[fancy]

I saw a sign on the way home for baby pigs @ $40 each, was wondering is that a good price?

What to look for, and do pigs get lonely if they are by themselves?

Can you raise a single pig? To eat of coarse, not as a pet?

 

[deb4o]

Price depends on what part of the country your in,( here central wa state, and depending on the age) they start at about that and can get as high as 65.00.

Make sure it doesn't have any hernias, is active, and the mother is healthy and has been raised in a clean pen. At least thats what I look for, as for raising them alone, we never raise any animal alone. I'am sure it can be done, but I just feel at all of God creatures need companionship.

Be sure to have a solid pen as they like to get out and roam, other than that enjoy them and look forward to all that home grown pork mmmmmmmmm!

 

[fancy]

Deb

Thanks for the info. I agree with the companionship thing but wonder how much more work will 2 pigs be.

Any advice on boys or girls or 1 of each? We have electric fence for the horses so we could do that for pigs. The perimeter fence is chain link. We live in south florida, $40 seems almost too cheap, will have to drag my kicking and screaming DH with me to see them.

 

[Dunkopf]

That's what we paid for ours. We bought two and took them home in our Suburban. We put down a tarp and had them in the cargo section. Every time I would go around a turn they would lose their balance and fall down. At that point they would poop all over the place. Two of our kids were in the seat in front of them and they were so grossed out. If you have never smelled pig poop it is horrible. It was so funny I was crying. 40 degrees out and all the windows were down. Then we got them home and they got out of their enclosure in about 5 minutes and we chased them around for about 2 hours.

At any rate be sure you have enough room. They are real pigs and they stink up a small enclosure real fast. Be careful what you feed them. They will eat anything and we fed them a lot of scraps. Because of that they had too much fat and it was an overall bad experience. I'm sure if we would have done it right they would have been fine. I still don't believe people about mitigating the smell. I've driven by pig farms in Iowa. The pigs looked to be in enclosures that were about 50x100 for a sow and her piglets. Not crowded at all. Yet you could smell the place from afar.

We don't eat enouigh pork to justify it but if you're a pork eater I can see why a non processed pig would be desireable.

 

[Wannabefree]

Here in Tennessee I can get them for $30 or 3 pullets

 

[freemotion]

$65 and up here, plus delivery fee. I paid $150 for two, delivered, and was happy to get them for this price, as they were started the way I want to raise mine, on pasture with a natural diet plus scraps.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

What I know about pigs is all pretty mch hearsay and not personal experience, but I've looked into it a lot and I still want to raise a couple here and there.

I've been told by a number of people as well as read in a few sources that you need two because they are kind of social eaters. One eats so the other eats. They say if you have only one it likely won't grow well for that reason. I am not sure of course if that's true, but I hav heard/read it many times. Even if you only want the meat from one, I've been advised to sell the second when they are grown out, but always grow two together.

Just fwiw.

I've been thinking (nobody bash me here please) of raising a couple of the Vietnamese potbelly pigs for meat. IF they are more containable, and if they won't eat my chckens. I know most people think of them as pet animals but they ARE pigs and in Vietnam they are regarded as pork, not pets. There seems to be a glut of them around here and folks were almost giving them away.

 

[freemotion]

Bash you? HERE? I see them on craigslist all the time and my mouth waters!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

LOL at least I'm not the only one thinking that way!

 

[ALANB.]

FANCY / DEB ; Two pigs will always Grow and gain faster than one , they will fight over the feed and NO !! Two pigs or twenty they take the same amount of time to feed . BUT They have snouts the strenth of an Elephant and will go under any Chain link If not buried and re-inforced !!! They are also very clean , you will be surprised to see them choose a far corner of the Pen to Urinate etc: , opposite the feed and water ............ , ALANB.