Do I have to worm my pig?

[homesteadmomma]

I have a pig that was weaned in July hope to butcher in late November - Early December. I feed him as little medicated feed as possible and lots of windblown fruit, veggies, bread and food scraps from our house only. We don't feed him any meat. Do I need to worm him and if so with what. I am trying to raise him as cheaply as possible. We love him now but will love him more when he is in the feezer.

 

[freemotion]

I gave mine the goat's herbal dewormer....just because. They ate the molasses herbal balls quite nicely.

 

[justusnak]

You can throw in a few pumpkins. He will love it, and they are good for deworming. I use pumpkins, seeds especially, on the goats, sheep, pigs, chickens ducks, and turkeys!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, yeah, I tossed in two large wheelbarrow's of pumpkins/squashes and they gutted them and ate all the seeds first.

 

[homesteadmomma]

Thank you for your replies. I really didn't want to go buy a wormer and knew pumpkins work in chickens - glad to know it works with pigs also.

 

[Beekissed]

My granny always gave hers soapy dishwater...and we did the same when we had pigs. The soap acts as a dewormer and they don't even seem to care that it is soapy....slurp it right up with their slop.

She used to do this with chickens also.

A good charred log end from your wood fire is also a great dewormer...I think Sally found this out also. Pig ate it right up. My sheep love them as well.

Walnuts, along with their hulls, are great nutrition and great dewormers for pigs.

 

[jambunny]

Thanks for the good ideas. I had never heard of any natural wormers. I know that getting the worms saves money in the long run, earlier butchering and all. Next year I will have to try some of those ideas!

 

[homesteadmomma]

Well as I was outside today I walked past our fire pit and remembered what was said on here about giving the pig a charred log. There was a chunk on wood that was all black and charred and so I threw it in the pen and the dang pig went "hogwild" with it. He chomped and chomped and chomped on it and still is going to town with it. He left the tomatoes, corn, green beans and the rest of the veggies to devour that. Makes me wonder what he is getting out of it that he is missing.

Thanks for the suggestion!