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About Helen Morrison
Expertise
Pot-bellied or other miniature pet pig care, including diet, housing, training, health care. Can provide information about zoning, adoption, supplies, and organizations. Questions about any kind of pet swine are welcome!
Experience
Fifteen years experience owning, raising, and caring for small pet swine, including "Vietnamese" pot-bellied pigs.
Organizations
Pigs of Great Fortune
Publications
Animals Exotic and Small
I am the Swine Contributing Editor
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You are here: Experts > Animals/Pets > Exotic Pets > Pot Bellied Pigs > Overweight pot bellied pig
Expert: Helen Morrison - 10/27/2009
Question
We just aided our local animal control in rescuing a pot bellied pig from a residential yard. The pig is severely overweight, by my estimations, and we are in need of advice as to how to quickly but safely get some of this weight off so she can be more comfortable. She is huge and can barely walk. She has huge fat forehead/brow that obstructs her vision so she is basically blind. When we picked her up, we were given a bag of corn as her food. Right now, that is all we have but know she needs some kind of balanced pig feed. We would like some recommendations on what to feed her and how much to start out with. She now has free grazing range in a small, 1 acre paddock with some rescued mini-horses and donkey. Is grazing on grass enough for her right now? She has no access to their feed at feeding time. Any advice you can give is appreciated. Thanks in advance. Lorie
Answer
It takes a while to get obese and it will take a while for piggy to get slim again. First, trim her hooves so she can move her feet freely when she gets the urge.
Almost anything is better than corn. Even ordinary oatmeal from the grocery store is better than corn. Corn is high in sugars and starches. Oats don't have sugar or fat, and do have lots of fiber that helps piggy feel full, and keeps things moving through piggy!
A food for pot-bellied pigs is best, there's several major brands including Mazuri, Mana Pro and Heartland. Or, any low fat, low protein livestock feed such as complete horse pellets (NOT "Sweet Feed"!!) or hog chow will work, too. Grazing is great for her. Loads of fiber and it will make her feel really full (but be warned it may also give her gas!).
But grazing doesn't provide much nutrition, and she still needs nutrients. Plus, if she can barely walk, she won't be able to graze enough. Later, when she's more active and able to graze all day, grazing can count as a big part of her daily diet.
Normally, a pot-bellied pig should get 1 cup of pot-bellied pig food per 50 lbs of pig. The problem here is that your pig is overweight, she needs to eat less and exercise more. My suggestion is to give her 2 cups of food plus a cup of plain oats or oatmeal, divided into two or three small meals. I'd also give her a childrens vitamin daily, and plenty of water. If she is reluctant to drink the water, it's ok to add a little fruit juice.
Hopefully you should see some changes right away. "Full" pigs like to lay around and nap. "Hungry" pigs like to snurdle around and investigate. And that's what you want to happen - you want her to get up and walk off some of the excess weight.
A friend of mine recently rescued an extremely obese pig named Elbert. He and his weight loss were featured on Animal Planet earlier this week. His video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36n64f9KVCM My friend, along with other rescue people who have saved obese pigs, are on a Yahoo group called PigInfoAndChat. I urge you to join, as they have first hand experience with this kind of situation.
The video of Elbert shows the kind of changes you should expect to see in your piggy over the next few months. Hopefully, the fat roll will shrink and her sight and hearing will return.
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