Small Appetites!

Joanna Palmer, nutritionist for Smallholder Range, offers some practical advice on how best to feed the smaller pig breeds and best meet their nutritional needs.

- Joanna Palmer

By their very nature, pigs have voracious appetites and will hungrily devour what’s offered to them. But care should always be taken to ensure that they aren’t overfed. While the Maori translation for Kunekune is ‘fat and round’, and clearly indicates their natural tendency to be stocky and well covered, obesity is a serious problem with these types of pigs. It can cause long-term health implications, as well as foot and joint problems due to the excessive weight-bearing.

Nutritional balance

Generally speaking, all small breeds of pigs will thrive on a high-fibre diet that, in the wild, would consist mainly of grass, nuts, berries, insects, fruits and vegetables. In a domestic situation, a suitable, nutritionally balanced pig feed is vital to ensure all that the vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are provided.

Owners of smaller breeds would do well to avoid specialist, commercial pig diets, as these can lead to fast growth and excessive weight gain. Instead a higher- bre feed with lower calorie and protein levels should be provided for a more natural feeding regime.

Smallholder Range Pot-Bellied Pig Feed has been specifically designed to combat the problem of obesity in all types of pigs that don’t require a specific rearing or breeding feed, but still provide a nutritionally-balanced diet.