My 8 week old pig

Question
QUESTION: I bought a pot bellied pig I found in an aquarium in a local pet store, I would have taken all of them if I could have cause this broke my heart. They said once she finished the 5 gallon bucket of formula to put her on pellets we bought the pellets yesterday and now I can't get her to eat and she keeps crying, what do I do?

ANSWER: Your baby pig may not know how to eat the pellets, and may not even be old enough to have enough teeth to chew them. It is not uncommon for breeders or pet stores to misrepresent a piglets age.

Get more formula, and in the meantime, try giving baby some goat or regular milk. If the milk does not give her diahrrea, start mixing in a few pellets with the milk, at room temperature or slightly warm. At each meal add more and more pellets, until she's eating something that looks like cream of wheat. If the seitch to goat or cows milk does give her tummy troubles, use the formula instead of milk on the pellets

At that point you can begin to switch from milk to water and continue to feed wet pellets, or gradually reduce the amount of milk and feed her dry.

I think a vet check up would be helpful. The vet can make sure baby is healthy and give you an accurate estimate of her age based on her teeth. There is a partial list of veterinarians who see pet pigs at www.farec.org




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: What about dog food she discovered the beneful we give our 3 year old and she won't stay out of it, is it good for her or will it make her huge? And Ty for the info 💗

Answer
Pigs love dog and cat food but it isn't good for them. It's too high in fat and salt and too low in fiber. It also makes pig poop stink horribly!!

But, a little bit won't hurt and if your pig loves it, then use it to convince him to eat piggy pellets. Blend a little of the dog food with milk and pellets, just enough dog food so the mixture smells like dog food. Then, each day, reduce the amount of dog food until piggy is just eating pellets.

Now that you know piggy likes dog food, if you must give him medicine in the future, you can get him to take it by mixing it with the dog food he loves