Feeding a 3 week old pot belly pig

Question
I purchased a potbelly pig a few days ago, she is about 2 and 1/2 pounds, I think she is about 3 weeks old..I know this is very young and I want to make sure we are doing everything right... We were told to feed her cornbread and whole milk.... is this ok or should we be doing something else?? This is our first pig... thanks

Answer
Three weeks is a very young age for a piglet to be away from Mom. Most pot-bellied pigs do not wean their piglets until they are about 8 weeks old.

Your piglet should be getting a pot-bellied pig starter chow. If she can not eat the pellets, moisten them with goats milk. Goats milk is more nutritional and easier to digest than whole cows milk. Powdered goats milk is often available in health food stores or the organic/health food section of larger grocery stores.

Many people free feed very young piglets, like yours, until they are 10 - 15 lbs. The rule of thumb is 1/4 - 1/2 cup of feed twice a day for every 15 lbs of piglet. But at her small size, she may not be able to eat a whole 1/2 cup of food.

Pigs do not think the way dogs and cats do. I highly recommend Priscilla Valentine's book Pot-bellied Pig Behavior and Training (available from Amazon.com or her website www.valentinesperformingpigs.com ).

It's much easier to start off on the right foot than it is to correct bad habits later on. That's especially true with piglets that were weaned early and raised in homes with no other pigs around, because those are two risk factors for aggressive behavior around age 2 or 3, when the pig reached piggy maturity.

Avoid using kitty litter in the litter box, especially clumping litter. Pigs tend to try to eat kitty litter, and the chemicals in clumping litter can be deadly.