No miniature non-lard pigs? :(

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No miniature non-lard pigs? :(

Postby SilverFlame819 » Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:18 pm

Why aren't there any bacon-style (modern-type) miniature pigs? And by "miniature", I don't mean a 15-lb pet. I mean a 300-lb max farm pig. There are several small breeds that are Potbellies (AGH, PBP, Kune), but no small svelte piggies. I really like the body style of a regular farm hog. They don't have the trouble moving that potbellies do, and you can feed them whatever garden/dairy scraps you want without worrying about them becoming obese while running around on pasture. I also like that they can SEE because they don't have rolls of fat on their faces, or severely upturned noses. I really enjoy fun colors in my animals, and it seems like the only real option among the current minis for color is the KuneKune. I also like that KuneKunes don't tend to root much, so they can be trusted to not mangle the ground in areas where they roam. But a pig that can be kept fat solely on grass, while it sounds great in theory, isn't really what I want. The whole draw of a pig, for me, is in their ability to recycle. All of the scraps and milk that I don't necessarily want to throw to chickens can go to the pigs. But if feeding them extra stuff is going to make them obese... Yeah, that won't work. My idea was basically that I could have a few breeders that I rotated around the farm so I would have a critter to throw scraps to, but who would also bring in money from selling the piglets, and I could butcher out piglets for dog food. I don't want a 600# pig on my farm, and to use as dog food, lard-style pigs will NOT work, unless I want my dogs dead from pancreatitis. So this is basically my whine.

All last night, I was thinking about getting a few different sows from breeds I like the looks of, and a couple KuneKune boars, and breeding my OWN style of pig. I know that they've done something similar with the IPP, but I'm just not a fan of them. They look mostly like a KuneKune, only a bit larger. I want something the SIZE of a KuneKune, but with the lean-style body. This morning I found myself looking up Juliana pigs (the only miniature pig breed where being a potbelly is a breed fault, but they are crazy small, at around 50 lbs max), and thinking about buying a couple boars and breeding THOSE to the larger breeds instead, in order to bring their size down. Of course, most of the full-size breeds are rooters, so I'd have to introduce something else into the mix with non-rooting traits, or simply get used to moving the pigs frequently, so they didn't dig holes to China.

I can't be the only person on earth looking for this mythical breed. Part of me thinks - I could just breed it myself, and then make bank selling the end result 5-10 years from now, like the people who have done IPP's have... Or I could just not bother, buy some weaner pigs of *whatever* breed every year, and butcher them out for dog food. The part of me that loves a challenge, especially when it comes to creating new breeds and varieties of animals, is like - DO IT!!! The part of me that knows I'll have enough on my plate to do is like - Screw that! *lol*

Also, I wasted a ridiculous amount of time this morning looking at miniature milk cows online as well. I just want them in every color of the rainbow, and one of the only GOOD options at this point is the Mini Jersey, or the breed-up program for them. Sure wish Dutch Belted came in mini size! :)
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Re: No miniature non-lard pigs? :(

Postby mannytheseacow » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:27 pm

I don't know too much about specialty hog breeds but the pigs they raise in northern Vietnam are much like you describe, very different than the potbelly pigs you find in the US. Good luck finding one here though!

Regardless of breed, pork isn't something to feed your dog though. They can't handle it whether it's a bacon breed or a lard breed. Keeping dogs is kind of troublesome. Scientists estimate that dogs have about 3x the ecological impact of humans because of their hearty meat based diet. Rabbit and poultry are both ok to feed them. Rabbit might produce the most with least input, but are vectors for parasites. I do like my dogs though. ;)
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Re: No miniature non-lard pigs? :(

Postby SilverFlame819 » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:37 pm

Pork is okay to feed if you boil it to lessen the fat (you drain it off the top), which you should be doing with all meats that you cook (if you're not feeding raw). It's the high-fat stuff that causes problems, but then - all meats will do that. And only certain breeds and individual dogs seem to have issues with eating fat. Not that I want to chance it...

I don't plan to raise pigs at all, really. But I'm thinking if I DID have some, it would be handy to slaughter some piglets to help keep dog food costs low. The younger the pig, the less fat too, if you're feeding them right.

Regardless of their environmental impact - I'd rather have dogs around than people most days, so I'll be keeping them. :D

Rabbits are great for feeding dogs, but because of their zero fat, your dog can literally starve to death on them if that's all you're feeding. You have to feed veggies and carbs and stuff if you want to just feed rabbit. Of course, I plan to do that anyway, and rabbit (obviously) won't be the only critter in their diet. Half of all the chickens, goats, and sheep born will be boys... Not much you can do with a thousand roosters or rams... ;)
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