Tsavo wrote:Very cute microswine!
I question whether the weight of your pig is an issue at the moment. The other thing is I would say if he does keep gaining that there is a veterinary reason at play.
I have only had one comment from a vet about the largeness of one pig... I think he was much heavier than your pig. She did not tell me to diet him or how to do it. I did nothing and he did not die younger than most pigs.
Unless specifically told otherwise, I would feed all pigs including large ones unlimited timmy hay, unlimited timmy pellets, and two servings of fresh food a day, one usually a lettuce and one being cukes or peppers or carrots , etc. If read the riot act on a pig's weight I would portion the pellets but change nothing else.
The median age of pigs is about 3 or 3.5 as I recall although they can live much longer. So half die by 3.5.
I very much agree with this!!! He doesn't look too bad in the picture plus 1300g is still an OK weight for a healthy male plus a littel extra weight is usually a good thing, they tend to loose weight so fast when they get sick! I like mine to be on the chubby side, just in case...
I just got a new male, big fella, who didn't eat for almost a week when I got him (my dominat female didn't care for him at first, poor guy) and he was still at 1200g while looking underweight.
I do have a overweight female at the moment (said dominant female who's at 1200g) and a sickly, very much underweight female (satin with starting OD
) at just about 900g. That Pig is tiny and made it to just a little over 1000g at her best.
Personally, If possible, I'd loose the pellets but stay with free choice of hay for Remi. Stick to low starch/sugar veggies (no carrots, fruit). I think the kind of hay avaiable differs a little (I'm in europe) and we basically only feed "grass" hay (piggies and horses alike). Timothy and alfalfa are treats here.
I only offer pellets as treats or if I need to fatten one up. I feed Supreme Science selective guinea pig which is alfalfa based. Mine get fresh grass or veggies (tomato, cucumber, roman lettuce, carrot, bell pepper, pok choi, fennel...) twice a day and free choice of grass hay.
I feel the life expectancy depends on the breed too. My teddies (swiss and US alike) never get to be as old as the smooth haired or abessinians. They usually lived till 5-8 y/o while the teddies tend to get sick and die eventually at around 3-4 years. I just lost a male US teddy to a colic at 3,5 y/o.
The sickly one ist a swiss teddy satin and I doubt that she will even make it to 2,5 y/o. The fat and healthy one: smooth haired...
The girl is beautiful! I love silver agoutis!