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Pig farming among private owners is much less popular than rabbit farming or poultry farming. There are both objective and subjective reasons for this.
Objective ones are, alas, government control bodies with which it is difficult to argue. In many regions of Russia, private owners are already prohibited from keeping pigs under the pretext of ASF outbreaks. There is, however, an interesting trend: ASF constantly breaks out where large pig-breeding complexes are located. Moreover, the disease avoids the complexes themselves.
In regions where there are no pig-breeding complexes, the ASF situation is quite favorable; veterinarians look favorably on the idea of the owner of a private farmstead to have pigs. Especially if these are Vietnamese pigs, which are much less aggressive than large white pigs and much more unpretentious in maintenance.Therefore, before you get pigs, you need to check with your veterinary station to see if there is ASF in the region.
The subjective belief can be attributed to the widespread belief that pigs stink and are dirty. And, in general, “a pig will find dirt.” Pigs, by the way, have every right to be offended. People do not allow them to live like pigs, forcing them to live like human beings. In fact, pigs are very clean animals. Given the opportunity to choose, the pig will always shit in only one corner and will never lie in its own excrement.
People also create the stench by feeding food waste to pigs, keeping animals in pens two meters deep and rarely cleaning them.
The Vietnamese pot-bellied pig is distinguished by its cleanliness and accuracy, even compared to its counterparts. Keeping Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs in a tiny pen, not even letting them out for walks, is simply cruel to these pigs. Potbellies are highly trainable and can even tolerate being let out of the barn. Then, on command, they run to the “toilet.” So Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs are very pleasant animals to keep.
History and description of the Vietnamese potbellied breed
Pot-bellied pigs were originally introduced to Europe and Canada from Vietnam. This country is not the real homeland of the Vietnamese pig, the name was simply given to the country from where the spread of the potbellied breed began around the world.
In the post-Soviet space, at first the Vietnamese pig was positioned as a mini-pig, that is, a miniature version of a pig that can be kept in the house as a pet.Of course, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs are at least two times smaller than great whites and never reach a weight of 300 kg, but an animal about 65 cm tall, more than a meter long, weighing 150 kg and with very strong muscles can hardly be called a pet.
At the same time, the buyer is assured that Vietnamese potbellies do not grow large, the main thing is to limit their food intake. To be fair, it must be said that sometimes you can actually buy a purebred potbelly of miniature size. But this is just a failed copy. Either the brood was born in a cold room, and all the piglet’s strength was spent not on growth, but on fighting the cold, or it was artificial from birth, or simply the result of inbreeding.
Mini pigs have nothing to do with the meat pigs that pot bellies are. Miniature pigs are a separate group of pigs, with which selection work is being carried out to reduce their size.
Exterior and productive characteristics of the Vietnamese pot-bellied
Vietnamese pot-bellied pig breed belongs to the bacon type. Pigs of this breed are stocky, with a massive, wide body and very short legs. They are called pot-bellied and deservedly so. Many pigs of this breed can have a belly that shuffles along the ground.
The head of a real pot-bellied pig with a short muzzle. Moreover, fat folds creep from the forehead and cheeks onto the muzzle. This is less pronounced in pigs than in boars.
The most common colors of Vietnamese pigs are black, white and piebald. Less common are gray pigs the color of wild boar and brown ones.
The boar in the photo often looks like an infernal creature.
In reality, he can scare you with his unexpected appearance behind your back. Pot-bellied pigs move silently.
This does not mean that the Vietnamese potbelly is dangerous. On the contrary, pigs of this breed have a calm, good-natured disposition and increased curiosity with a constant desire to try everything.
Most likely, the boar needed such protection to protect itself from the fangs of its relatives when fighting for a female. A boar's canines begin to grow in the second year of life and will reach full size by age five if they are not removed.
While the boar is young, the fangs are of little importance, but once they emerge from the mouth, the boar can become dangerous. Especially when he protects his pig and cubs.
The weight of adult potbellies reaches 150 kg. It should be taken into account that, despite advertising, the fat of Vietnamese pot-bellies is not at all tender and soft. By four months, piglets have already formed a two-centimeter hard layer of fat on their backs. No meat layers. Actually, lard with layers of meat is obtained not from the breed of pigs, but using a special growing technology, where a period of rest alternates with periods of physical activity of pigs. During rest, fat is deposited; during activity, meat grows.
This does not apply to Vietnamese pot-bellies.If Vietnamese piglets have the opportunity to move, they will fully realize this opportunity.
For this reason, potbellied meat under a layer of subcutaneous fat has a delicate texture and good taste. After cutting off the subcutaneous fat, the meat becomes lean. If you don’t like fatty pork, just cut off a layer of fat from the carcass of a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.
Keeping Vietnamese pigs at home is not difficult.
Conditions of keeping and feeding
Vietnamese pot-bellied animals are very quiet animals. You can’t hear a squeal from them, even if the feeding time is overdue. Pot bellies, in general, can only squeal from fear when they are caught. The rest of the time, the sounds made by a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig are more often reminiscent of a dog’s “boofan”, when the dog barks, almost without opening its mouth. They can quietly grunt with pleasure. This feature helps owners avoid the attention of the relevant authorities if pigs are kept illegally.
True, pot-bellied piglets up to one month of age, sharing their mother’s teats, raise such a squeal that one gets the impression that they are being eaten alive and started from the hind legs. After a month, when the piglets begin to eat on their own, they stop squealing. But Vietnamese piglets suckle their mother for up to two months, so it is too early to separate them from their mother at one month. Often, it is because of early weaning that Vietnamese pot-bellied piglets die.
Room for Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs
The advantage of Vietnamese pot-bellies is their small size and peaceful nature. It does not require a very large room to keep several heads. But if the owner does not want the pigs to be "pigs", he should not keep them in the pen.Vietnamese potbellies should be given the opportunity to move freely and choose an angle for excrement.
15 m² is enough to keep four adult potbellies and six young animals up to 4 months.
Ideal when it is possible to arrange a walk for the pigs. Many owners keep Vietnamese pot-bellied dogs in a barn and let them out into the yard during the day. Although pot-bellies walk calmly even in the snow, they are heat-loving enough to require an insulated shed with deep bedding on the floor. It is better to make bedding from hay or straw. At night, the pot-bellied pig makes a rookery in the hay, burying itself no less than halfway. If they are cool, they try to lie down all together, huddling together. And this is another reason why it is better not to separate Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs into pens.
Diet of Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs
Most often, buyers do not have a question about what to feed Vietnamese pigs. People logically assume that a pig is a pig. It eats the same things as other breeds of this type of animal. This is partly true. But only partly. It is not for nothing that the pot-bellied Vietnamese are sometimes called herbivores.
Theoretically, like any pigs, Vietnamese potbellied omnivores. They may even catch and eat a fledgling or mouse. But it is better not to give them bloody meat, so that the sow, having tasted the blood, will not be tempted to eat the piglets. You should not give kitchen scraps either. Not fruit and vegetable trimmings, but that terrible mixture that is often given to pigs, taking waste from canteens and restaurants. Pot-bellied pigs will not die on such a mixture, of course, but they will stink just like large white pigs, which, in order to save money, are often fed with waste from the canteen.
And yet, the main diet of Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs is vegetable. Even grain granules should be given to them in very limited quantities, unless you are fattening the piglet for lard in the shortest possible time.
There will be no harm, but the grain in this form is practically not digested by them and passes right through. In other words, this is a translation of the product.
But the same grain, but finely ground and compressed so that it does not accumulate dust in the feed granules, is digested so well that pot-bellied animals get fat very quickly.
Since Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs are valued for their meat, and not for their hard fat, they are limited in their consumption of pellets.
The main diet of Vietnamese potbellies are fruits (if you want to pamper your pig, give him kiwi skins), vegetables and grass. Thrifty owners drive pot-bellied pigs out into the pasture to graze on the grass all day in the summer.
In winter, potbellies are given hay. They won’t eat everything, but they will gnaw on some and make nests from the rest. In winter, succulent food is also required in the diet: beets, carrots, apples, cabbage, etc. You can give potatoes raw or boiled. When it's raw, you have to make sure it doesn't turn green. Pigs can be poisoned by solanine.
Store-bought fruits pumped with chemicals can cause white diarrhea in potbellies. The piglet may die, and if it survives, it will be severely stunted.
“Human” carrots sold in supermarket chains are a separate matter.Competent owners of livestock, including potbellies, simply refuse to buy these carrots, but the suppliers have an ironclad argument: “You buy them from chain stores, right? Clean it, wash it." They are very surprised when they find out that they will not take them to the store, but to animals, and will not take them.
Raising Vietnamese pigs to provide meat for your own family requires smaller “production” areas and much less nerves. You can buy 2-month-old piglets and provide them with the appropriate type of food, depending on the desire to get tasty tender meat or rendered pork fat. You shouldn’t count on high-quality fat from pot-bellied pigs, although selection is now being made to increase muscle mass and fat in pot-bellied pigs.
To obtain meat, the emphasis is on plant foods, and to obtain fat, on concentrates.
Breeding
Breeding pot-bellied Vietnamese pigs is significantly more expensive. Not least of all nerves. And additional knowledge on this issue is also needed.
Puberty of potbellies
Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs mature at 4 months. Boar to 6. Theoretically. In practice, a boar can cover a pig even earlier. If the pig is large enough and weighs at least 30 kg, it can be bred.
Gestation lasts 115 days ± 2 days. The first time a sow gives birth to 6-7 piglets. Later, there can be up to 16 piglets in a litter, but this is rare. Usually 10-12.
Signs of heat and mating
Given that owners do not sit next to pigs waiting for heat to appear, the main and easily noticeable signs will be a swollen loop and the pig becoming immobile when you put your hand on its rump.
However, you shouldn’t delude yourself too much about immobility.If the pig is wild, it will still be quite active. So you need to take a closer look at the loop. If there are signs of heat, the pig is allowed to approach the boar. Then the pigs will figure it out on their own.
Otherwise, then conversations begin about the genetic predisposition of a pig during early pregnancy to give birth to dwarf piglets. In fact, the factors influencing the size of piglets are cold, hunger and inbreeding.
With inbreeding, in addition to size, the piglet's structure may also suffer. For example, an outwardly normal piglet may suddenly begin to tuck all four legs under itself at once and try to move around in this state. Upon closer examination, it turns out that his toes have not developed correctly and the piglet walks not on its hooves, but on soft tissues from which all the skin has already peeled off. That is, in fact, such a pig moves on open wounds. Pain as a stress factor can also slow down the development of a piglet.
Farrow
About a week before farrowing, the pig's udder begins to fill. However, this is an inaccurate sign, since the udder is mostly fat and the pig could simply have gained additional fat. The belly often also drops long before farrowing. But dragging bedding to build a nest and increasing the loop indicate that farrowing will occur in the next 24 hours.
On a note! There is no need to be afraid of sow obesity. All her fat is lost in the process of feeding a litter of piglets.
To the point where gaps appear in place of the fatty collar that forms the folds above the ears. The Vietnamese pig comes into heat again two months after farrowing, having just managed to lose weight. So Vietnamese pigs do not suffer from low fertility.
The photo shows a fat pot-bellied pig that will lose weight after farrowing and feeding the piglets.
Trouble-free farrowing of Vietnamese pigs - myth or reality?
The answer to this question is: yes and no. It all depends on the breeding tactics carried out by the Vietnamese potbellied breeder from whom the pig was purchased and the further actions of the new owner.
Problem-free farrowing occurs when a pig, unable to farrow on its own, has eaten the piglets, refused to feed the brood, or slept on the piglets, immediately ends up in the freezer. Even if she pigged for the first time. With such strict selection, the owner of a Vietnamese pig can sleep peacefully at night, and in the morning come to the barn and rejoice at the small, nimble piglets.
Therefore, an otherwise peaceful Vietnamese pig after farrowing may begin to rush at the owner, protecting her litter of piglets.
Farrowing with problems is most common in the former Soviet Union. There are several reasons:
- import of initially low-quality stock of Vietnamese pot-bellied fish;
- the high cost of Vietnamese piglets compared to salaries (in some European countries, a Vietnamese piglet at 3-4 months costs 20 euros);
- associated with the high cost of Vietnamese piglets, the desire to nurse the entire livestock born, even if the pig itself is not eager to feed its offspring or one of the piglets suffocated during the farrowing process (artificial respiration);
- not culling of grown up problem piglets for meat along with the sow, but further breeding of these individuals.
As a result, problem-free farrowing becomes a myth and the owner spends nights in the pigsty to help the pot-bellied Vietnamese pig farrow. But such pigs are usually not aggressive. Although it can be really bad: aggressiveness combined with problems.
Traditionally, for farrowing, Vietnamese pigs are equipped with a separate pen with a shelter for piglets. Just in case the queen decides to eat the brood. Heating devices are also placed there in cold weather.
For this reason, such a lamp is good in a brooder for chicks that, having overheated, will not go out into the cold. A piglet, having warmed up under an infrared lamp and going into a cold room to suckle its mother, can get a cold. It is better to install heating devices in the pigsty. If the air temperature in the room is above +20°C, this is enough for the piglets to feel comfortable.
Who to leave to the tribe
If you want to leave some of the piglets for the breeding, you need, if possible, to take into account the above nuances. Piglets from a problem-free pot-bellied pig, if there is one on the farm, are left for breeding. The piglet must be large. Even if you are sure that the pig is small due to external factors, it is better to leave the large one. The piglets grew up in the same conditions, they were cared for in the same way, which means that the larger one at least has better health. Also, you should not leave inbred piglets to self-repair unless you have serious zootechnical knowledge and a clear understanding of the goal for which inbreeding is necessary.
The photo clearly shows the sharp-faced pigs, which are considered Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs. These are either not purebred individuals or the result of inbreeding.In any case, it is not worth leaving such a pig for the tribe.
Raising piglets
Almost everywhere there are recommendations to give piglets injections of iron on the 4th, 10th and 15th days of life, since pig milk contains little iron. Without injections, piglets become lethargic and die. But the decision to inject iron or not largely depends on the feed the pig eats and the water it drinks. If there is a lot of iron in the foods consumed by the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, then injections may not be necessary. You should consult your local veterinarians on this issue. Excess iron is no less harmful than its deficiency. Piglets also die from an overdose of iron.
How to trim piglets' fangs and pierce an iron supplement:
This is the same case when piglets have their teeth cut because a low-quality pot-bellied pig refuses to feed them. But perhaps the piglets really bite the pig on the udder, because there is no selection. If all pig breeders slaughter pigs that have given up piglets, then biting piglets will also stop being born. Only those who can suckle milk without injuring the mother survive.
After all, the presence of teeth in newborn piglets is determined by the laws of evolution. Theoretically, if a pig dies, the piglets have a chance to survive under the protection of the boar, eating pasture. And somehow wild boars survived for millions of years until they were domesticated.
Video explaining why piglets die after iron injection:
Feedback from pot-bellied pig owners
Conclusion
Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs are truly a profitable investment. It’s unlikely that they’ll be able to do business with them, with all the prohibitions and restrictions, but the family will stop going to the store for pork. And store-bought pork won’t go down your throat after potbelly meat.
