Chunky Piggy

[2Pigs2Many]

Hello all, happy Tuesday and I hope you are doing well and that your health is good. Long story short, I got a BIG female piggy (Honey) who is 1093 grams. I read that the normal range is 700-900. I do not cut down her proportions or diet her as I learned from Saskia of LAGPR that it is not wise to do such. A little bit of history, the pet store labeled this little sweetheart as a male and as such my 5 year old man (Teddy) did the birds and the bees and they had 4 beautiful piglets. (He's neutered now, no worries. I kept them as well! Such wonderful balls of joy.) She gave birth 4/21/20. So where this becomes an absolute problem is, Teddy is a senior and while he is overall healthy he is 100 grams underweight while she is 100 grams overweight. I have pea flakes and a multi vitamin I give Teddy to supplement and I was thinking of adding critical care just to pack on some grams. But I have no idea if it is a long-term after pregnancy complication that Honey has that has her ravenous and eating everything in sight like a lawnmower or something else. I plan to take her to a vet soon for a little check up, but I wanted to see if I could get some opinions.

Thanks so much!

 

[Mo & Stubbins & Vani]

Although I cannot comment on anything regarding the pregnancy, you can't judge a piggy solely based on weight--you have to measure based off of heft.
Here is a link to TGPF guide on weight: Weight - Monitoring and Management.
Your female piggy (Honey) sounds to be completely within a healthy weight range, but again, you have to judge based on heft (as the link details).

 

[2Pigs2Many]

Although I cannot comment on anything regarding the pregnancy, you can't judge a piggy solely based on weight--you have to measure based off of heft.
Here is a link to TGPF guide on weight: Weight - Monitoring and Management.
Your female piggy (Honey) sounds to be completely within a healthy weight range, but again, you have to judge based on heft (as the link details).

Thank you so much for this link. A lot of weight fell off my shoulders, I feel more relieved now. I was so worried about the possibility that she was eating most of their veggie dinner and Teddy wasn't getting enough. I checked their heft and it was within normal limits.

 

[Freela]

There are definitely healthy sows who are bigger than 900 g. I've had several (I'm looking at one of them right now! LOL!) Try not to get too hung up on a number on the scale, look at overall weight and body condition.

 

[Siikibam]

You’ve been given good advise above. There is no ‘normal range’ for piggies simply because they come in all shapes and sizes. If you’re worried that Honey is eating most of the food and pellets then do scatter feeding. That way Teddy gets some and she can’t ‘hoard’ it. It also gives them something to do, and they have to work for their food.

If Teddy is getting a variety of veg (50g a day), having his daily tablespoon of pellets and is eating enough hay (can only be monitored by weekly weighing rather than by eye), then he shouldn’t need the multivitamin supplement. I’d also cut down pea flakes to an occasional treat rather than something given regularly.