Hey Eddie, look what I got!

[EddieWalker]

That's great!!!! I added milk to the pig starter and fed Oscar cream of corn when I got him off of the bottle. The first day, he was very wild and wouldn't stop screaming, but then the second day, he calmed down and was friendly. I guess he really liked that milk.

The sooner you get him fixed, the better life will be. He will be great for the first six months, then you will notice him starting to get pushy. Oscar would try to sneak around behind me and go after my ankles. After he was fixed, all that went away and he's been calm ever since.

Mostly I fed him dog food, but now he just eats what the horses and chickens eat, plus a small coffee can of chopped corn.

Take tons of pics, they grow really fast!!!

 

[STx]

" some Russian in his lineage"???
Oh No!
Do you think he might have been colluding with the Russians?

That's a serious allegation. We're appointing a Special Pigsecutor to look into this.

 

[STx]

That's great!!!! I added milk to the pig starter and fed Oscar cream of corn when I got him off of the bottle. The first day, he was very wild and wouldn't stop screaming, but then the second day, he calmed down and was friendly. I guess he really liked that milk.

The sooner you get him fixed, the better life will be. He will be great for the first six months, then you will notice him starting to get pushy. Oscar would try to sneak around behind me and go after my ankles. After he was fixed, all that went away and he's been calm ever since.

Mostly I fed him dog food, but now he just eats what the horses and chickens eat, plus a small coffee can of chopped corn.

Take tons of pics, they grow really fast!!!

I've got pig feed for my feeder pigs, I've mixed milk in it with some corn. He's at that age where he'd still be nursing but, it's not required. Biggest problem I'm having with him is he flips everything over but, that's just pig behavior, my feeder pigs do it also. I'm going to give him a few days to settle down and then castrate him. At this size, it's a 5 minute job for one man with some side cutters and spray on bandage.

He's conflicted still, half the time he charges me in the cage, the other half he rolls over for belly rubs. He'll come around, I'm sure of it, he just needs to figure out lucky he actually is to be here.

You're not kidding about them growing fast, my feeders we're 30-40 pounds when I got them the end of July. They're 250ish now and about ready for graduation. I was going to wait until I finished off the last 7 bags of pig feed before taking them in but, now I have something else to feed it to so I may just get them gone. They're complete pains in my butt, no respect for electric fence and just general jerks. I got them too old to break their bad habits and didn't spend a ton of time with them since they were destined for the freezer. This guy's fate is different so he'll get a different upbringing. Plus, he's much younger so he'll be easier to train up right.

 

[EddieWalker]

Friends of our retired last year and they have been trying different things to make some money on the side. Pigs have proven to be one of their biggest mistakes. The mess and smell is horrible, and they are way too aggressive and dangerous to go into the pen. They have built a set of chutes to get one out when going to the butcher, but some days it takes hours to get one to go into it. I think they have three or four left, and when they are gone, they are done raising pigs. But the meat is very good, and they are making money at it, but it's not worth the effort that goes into it. Their best money maker has been selling plants at the Farmers Market in Mesquite.

Oscar is 7 years old now and when he passes, that will be it for pigs. He's been a lot of fun, but I like goats a lot better.

 

[STx]

I haven't given up on pigs yet. A lot of the problems I've had with this first 3 were as much me as them. They haven't been aggressive at all, in fact when they were slipping out the electric fence they would follow us back into.the pen, it just took some patience, pigs have to be convinced they want to go where you want them.

Our perimeter fencing wasn't ready and is nowhere near pig proof so I was relying on the hotwire to be able to rotate them through the pasture. It worked for a little while but, once they figured out how to ground it out or slip under, they did what they wanted. Half the time, they'd walk up to the house to see what we were up to.

The smell is really a problem of overcrowding or not rotating them frequently enough. I had none when I could move them with the hotwire. The last 2 months I've had to keep them in a real pen and while it's large for 2 pigs, it is starting to have some odor on hot days. They've also rooted it badly. Once they're gone, I'm going to disc and rake it to level it out again. It'll be a great garden plot next year.

When I get pigs again, which will probably be a year or so, I'm getting them smaller and making sure they get properly trained to the hotwire. We have a 5 acre pasture that we're going to divide into 10 1/2 acre paddocks with hotwire. We'll rotate them into a new paddock every 3-4 weeks with a central wallow, food, water and shelter area. We'll have a couple of breeder sows that we'll AI and farrow our own replacement pigs so I don't have to worry about them having learned bad habits before I got them. I'm looking to get into high end restaurants but, we'll likely start with Farmer's Markets.

This first 3 was a good learning experience, I've made changes to the master plan based on them.

The new little guy, on the other hand, is going to be raised like a dog. He'll have the life of Oscar, no responsibility except to attract attention. He's already doing a good job of that!

 

[EddieWalker]

...The new little guy, on the other hand, is going to be raised like a dog. He'll have the life of Oscar, no responsibility except to attract attention. He's already doing a good job of that!

People do seem drawn to seeing Oscar when they come out here, and when I post a pic of him on FB, there is always a good response. The damage that he does now is a lot less then when he was younger. Now he mostly just sleeps most of the time. When it's hot out, he's usually under the bushes in the pond, where there it's the coolest. Horses are more destructive then he is, but I somehow doubt that I'll be able to get rid of them.

 

[STx]

People do seem drawn to seeing Oscar when they come out here, and when I post a pic of him on FB, there is always a good response. The damage that he does now is a lot less then when he was younger. Now he mostly just sleeps most of the time. When it's hot out, he's usually under the bushes in the pond, where there it's the coolest. Horses are more destructive then he is, but I somehow doubt that I'll be able to get rid of them.

He's already drawn 10,000 post views and several shares in my FB name the pig post. Of course, I'm giving away a cellular game camera to the winner so, that might have something to do with it... lol

If any of you guys want to offer a suggestion and get in on camera giveaway, here's the post.
Meet the new Texas Hog Traps mascot, he was part of a group caught by one of our customers in a R.A.T.S. wireless setup.

He needs a name, something trap related and clever so, let's have a giveaway. Give us your suggestions and if we choose your name, you win an HCO Spartan AT&T Blackout camera.

Post your suggestions below!

I'm going to keep taking suggestions until Monday. Then we'll either pick a name if one is just perfect or choose 5 and setup a poll.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Feral hog or javelina ? Hard to tell with the pictures. Due to the color i assume its a hog. Javelina have one dew claw on the rear feet and something about the tail if i remember correctly ? Do you see many javelina ? Been a while since I was around them.

I don't think I have ever seen a Javelina, and I'm certainly not very familiar with them. I think they must be located a lot farther South. I think it's interesting that the striped/camouflage coloring is exhibited in the feral hogs but not in domestic hogs...at least I have never seen it, and I have seen quite a few.

Interesting sidelight: My Dad told me that my Grand dad had a field of wheat burn back in the 30's. He bought a bunch of hogs and fed them out on the wheat that was on the ground. He also said that he used hogs to clear out some areas that were infested with Johnson Grass. He said the hogs would completely destroy the grass; rooting out and eating the roots.

 

[STx]

I don't think I have ever seen a Javelina, and I'm certainly not very familiar with them. I think they must be located a lot farther South. I think it's interesting that the striped/camouflage coloring is exhibited in the feral hogs but not in domestic hogs...at least I have never seen it, and I have seen quite a few.

Some if the heritage breeds have this trait, wild pigs are essentially heritage breeds or crosses. I know the Mangalitsa pig does this, it looks like a sheep pig when grown. I believe the Holstein are striped as babies also.

 

[EddieWalker]

I just posted my suggestion on your page. Hamilton always makes me laugh a little with the word Ham in the beginning for a pig.


From what I understand, Javelina are not pigs. They are their own species and unable to cross breed. Saying that, there are no native pig species to North America. I watched a show about hogs on National Geographic Channel and they said that a domestic hog, with floppy ears, curled tail and not hair will actually change it's DNA when it's set free, or escapes into the wild. It's ears will stand up, it's tail will straighten and it will become covered in hair. I forget exactly how long this takes, but it's fairly quickly. Maybe a year or two. I just find that to be amazing!!!!