Feeding pigs Veg peelings

[Fran & Ralph]

Hi there. Getting 2 Kunes on Saturday.
Ive been reading up on what not to feed them etc. I know that any food that has been in contact with meat and meat products should not be given to them. In our house we have seperate areas for food prep. Am i allowed to give them fruit and veg peelings if they are prepared on seperate areas with seperate knives etc from meat prep. We eat loads of veg so it just seems a waste to throw it if they can eat it. Also what veg can they not eat as i seem to get conflicting answers from the web . Thanks in advance for your help Fran & Ralph

[truella]

Mine get any fruit/veg that I can get my hands on. My Kunes LOVE banana's, apples, pinaple, carrots, swede, etc.

Some will eat cabbage, brocolli, couliflour, corgettes, etc, but others won't.

I read somewhere (but can't remember where) that citris fruits are bad for pigs...........can anyone confirm this???

& potato's should not be fed raw.

[Fran & Ralph]

Thank you for replying . Basically then can i give them peelings and if they dont like them they wont eat them. As for the potatoes i already have to boil them for the 28 chickens we have. Got apple trees as well so are the windfalls ok to give them ? (not rotten or too bruised of course) Fran & Ralph..

[wendy scu]

i'm afraid the law says that you cannot feed your pigs anything that has passed through your kitchen - this even applies to an apple from your fruit bowl!
sorry - i'm only quoting the law

don't feed onions, parsnips, leeks or anything from the onion family as these can blister the skin which then bears a resemblance to foot and mouth disease. don't know about citrus fruit but mine don't like it anyway

[truella]

I agree, The law does state anything that has been in your kitchen you can't use......even the crusts from bread loaf's (that no-one in my family eats).

I get fruit & veg from local shop's (which are past the stage's of being sold) & chop it up in my shed for the pigs therefore it never see's my kitchen.

The onion family are bad for pigs too, although they won't tend to eat them if given anyway (I tried feeding some onions when I first started keeping pigs & they just don't like them anyway), but they haven't had the chance to eat them as I just throw them away since I realised that.

I didn't know parsnips weren't good though Wendy. I thought they came from the carrot family & my pigs love them.

[ambriel]

Yes ours love carrots, too. I rarely get away with a trip to the shed without being spotted, and having to bribe them with a few carrots to make them shut up.

[Fran & Ralph]

Thank you for your replies... Pigs not comin till end of month now More time to research things

[clteward]

Hi, does anyone know why, or if it's true that potatoes can't be fed raw? Thanks

[truella]

Mine get raw potato's..........but only in small rations. The high amount of starch is quite difficult to digest & I don't feed them green potato's...........hasn't caused a problem with mine yet being fed raw (touch wood).

[The Rushbury Pig]

Mine have had raw potatoes too.....It took me quite a while to realise it was the pigs that digging them up out of my veggie patch and not my husband!!! By the time I realised they had eaten quite few over a week or two with no ill effects. Up until then I had not fed them as I had heard the high starch content unsettled their stomach. I would stiil feed them in moderation and monitor the results and not feed green potatoes at all

[clteward]

OK that's fine then. I've been feeding my four them (obviously in moderation like everything else) and they love them, with no ill effects. Guess they're just like humans when it comes to eating a lot of starch! And I've recently found that mine love bananas, are they ok for them to eat? I was a bit worried about the high potassium levels. Thanks.

[The Rushbury Pig]

Bananas are fab and mine LOVE them

I can offer a little info about high potassium levels as I asked one of the BPEX vets if feeding bananas would a helpful boost to the levels of potassium needed in farrowing sows as it was a little low in many compound feeds. Her answer was that they'd need to eat a lot of bananas to have any significant impact and that under normal circumstances they were just seen as a very palatable addition so I don't think you need to worry unless you intend to exclusively feed bananas!!!

[truella]

Bananas, beet root & pumkins (when pumkins are in season)............my pigs go nuts for them!
Mine get fed just about any & every type of fruit & veg going, even types that even I haven't ever tasted, they soon tell you what they love & what they will tollerate. If I end up with any fruit with stones in (peach, plums, cherrys, advocados, etc) I ALWAYS de-stone them before I give them to the pigs.
The only veg I try to avoid is onions & leaks,
1. I read somewhere that is causes symptoms like foot & mouth &
2. they don't really like them anyway to the extent that some won't even entertain them.
Basically, anything that hasn't passed through your kitchen or been in contact with meat.

[ambriel]

Like the others, our boys love bananas, apples and carrots. They've occasionally had raw potatoes but only a few and very occasionally. Not noticed any side effects. They won't touch onions or leaks though, and don't seem particularly keen on cabbages/lettuce/etc, which isn't a bad thing as the hens soon polish them off.