Too much nugget?

[Piggly&Weeny]

Hi all!
I've been reading on here about the recommended daily pellet intake, and I'm worried I'm overfeeding/withholding food from my piggies.
I know the recommended intake is 1 tablespoon per pig per day, and I do give them about this much (I have an adult female and young female). But it disappears fairly quickly! For example, I can fill their bowl in the evening and it's gone by morning, or vice versa I can fill the bowl in the morning and it's gone by the end of the day. I'm worried that I'm not giving them enough, as their weights are not even at the top end of normal (my adult female ranges from 840g-870g, and the young female only a few months is currently 560g).
Is this OK or is it a case that if its there they will eat it? (my previous females were never too fussed about pellet and rarely emptied the bowl so this is a first for me).
Am I OK to give them more as their weight is not too high, or is it worth being strict with this? They have a constant source of hay and get veggies twice daily.

 

[My Piggies]

Pellets should be limited to one tablespoon per piggy per day. Mine also devour their pellets immediately, it's just the piggy way
In terms of weight, their is no set ideal weight. Measuring by heft is a more accurate measure of their weight. If you can only just feel the outline of their ribs, they are a healthy weight. If you can easily feel every rib they are likely underweight, and if you can't feel them at all they are overweight.
I hope this helps

 

[Piggies&buns]

Pellets are one tablespoon per pig per day. Please don’t give more.

Your adult female’s weight is fine long as long it is stable and her heft is good. The usual adult weight is between 800g and 1500g but it is determined by genetics - some will be higher, some lower. As long as weight is stable and piggy is eating hay well, then there is nothing to worry about.

Weight is not a good indicator of what is healthy for the individual piggy - their heft is. A piggy can be small on the the scales but still be perfectly healthy and equally at the other end of the scale! One of my boys is 1500g and the other is 1200g - they are both perfectly healthy for themselves but if my 1500g piggy was suddenly to become 1200g he would be drastically underweight and equally my smaller piggy would be drastically overweight.

They will put on weight and get to their genetic adult weight with a good hay based diet. Overfeeding pellets will cause unhealthy weight gain (as well as potential other issues such as too high calcium intake which can lead to bladder problems) - it’s like us eating loads of chocolate and gaining weight, it’s not healthy weight gain.

Mine get their one tablespoon of pellets each in the evening (they actually don’t get pellets every day though particularly not in summer) , it’s scattered amongst their hay so if they find it then they eat it, if not it gets thrown away.

Weight - Monitoring and Management

 

[Merab]

Don’t worry - we all learn here.
Some of my early pics show a big bowlful of nuggets with Merab tucking in happily.
She lived to be 6 and her death wasn’t down to over feeding.
I still have piggies who will stand and look longingly at me from beside their empty bowl.
They now get about 2 tablespoons a day for 3 piggies.

 

[Free Ranger]

I think the biggest thing we worry about in terms of pellets is calcium intake. We try to limit pellets and use filtered or bottled soft water to reduce excess calcium. You will notice that piggy pee is sometimes 'milky' or leaves a bit of a white crusty residue. This is normal because, unlike people, piggies absorb all the calcium they eat and any excess is excreted in their pee. What we want to avoid is so much calcium in the diet that sludge forms in the bladder or even stones. We think that there might be a genetic element somehow in whether a piggy forms stones or not but we don't really know and you can't tell by looking whether a pig is going to form stones or not! So we try and keep the calcium down as a precaution. The other thing is that if there is bladder sludge and the flow of pee becomes sluggish the bladder isn't flushed so efficiently. A good flow helps prevent urine tract infection!

I offer my pigs more pellets than I 'should' but not much more - and I also monitor the pee patches carefully and hope for the best. They have plenty of hay, fresh grass and veg and multiple water bottles. We've reached a balance that we are happy with considering there are 3 and they have different pellet appetites. As they age I am more careful - it's my boy I worry about most as smaller stones in sows can be passed or 'extracted' without resorting to surgery. I limit high calcium veg but the forum has been very good to point out that even the highest calcium options are not as high as the pellets or tap water.

If your young girl is new you might find the pellet eating settles down as they get more used to each other and to your routine. When Louise joined George and Flora it was a tricky and protracted bonding and part of that was competitive eating! I'm assuming that once they settled and realised that there were enough for everyone that's why it calmed down although that did take a couple of weeks. Muscular Flora (top sow) gained weight but Louise did just get pretty fat - although she carried it well under all her floof! Now they surprise us by being the best of friends - 'fridge friends' if you know what I mean... they gang up on hubs!

 

[Piggly&Weeny]

I think the biggest thing we worry about in terms of pellets is calcium intake. We try to limit pellets and use filtered or bottled soft water to reduce excess calcium. You will notice that piggy pee is sometimes 'milky' or leaves a bit of a white crusty residue. This is normal because, unlike people, piggies absorb all the calcium they eat and any excess is excreted in their pee. What we want to avoid is so much calcium in the diet that sludge forms in the bladder or even stones. We think that there might be a genetic element somehow in whether a piggy forms stones or not but we don't really know and you can't tell by looking whether a pig is going to form stones or not! So we try and keep the calcium down as a precaution. The other thing is that if there is bladder sludge and the flow of pee becomes sluggish the bladder isn't flushed so efficiently. A good flow helps prevent urine tract infection!

I offer my pigs more pellets than I 'should' but not much more - and I also monitor the pee patches carefully and hope for the best. They have plenty of hay, fresh grass and veg and multiple water bottles. We've reached a balance that we are happy with considering there are 3 and they have different pellet appetites. As they age I am more careful - it's my boy I worry about most as smaller stones in sows can be passed or 'extracted' without resorting to surgery. I limit high calcium veg but the forum has been very good to point out that even the highest calcium options are not as high as the pellets or tap water.

If your young girl is new you might find the pellet eating settles down as they get more used to each other and to your routine. When Louise joined George and Flora it was a tricky and protracted bonding and part of that was competitive eating! I'm assuming that once they settled and realised that there were enough for everyone that's why it calmed down although that did take a couple of weeks. Muscular Flora (top sow) gained weight but Louise did just get pretty fat - although she carried it well under all her floof! Now they surprise us by being the best of friends - 'fridge friends' if you know what I mean... they gang up on hubs!

Thank you so much for this insight! I recently lost my rescue male to sludge/stones (we only had him about 3 months before having to have him put to sleep). So I am very conscious of calcium intake, and always give filtered water and low calcium diet etc!
I'll keep an eye on their intake and see if it calms down thank you again!