New piglets don't eat grain

I got three Mulefoot piglets last week and they seem to be adjusting well to their new home. I have noticed that they don't seem eat much if any of the grain I put out for them to supplement their forage. They love any greens I throw in their pen, but don't seem to care at all when I give them their pig feed (Nature's Best 19% pellets), and I'm concerned because I know pigs have specific nutrient requirements that they can't get effectively from grass/greens (e.g. lysine).

I've raised goats and sheep before, but I'm new to pigs and it was really odd to see livestock ignore grain like these piglets. Do I need to worry or can I be confident that they'll choose to eat what they need?

- Mason

How old are they?

John Weiland wrote:How old are they?

I think they're about two months.

Maybe what you are feeding is new to them.

I suggest asking the folks where you got the piglets what kind of feed they had been feeding them.

When I was weaning animals I often added water to soften the feed.

Pigs are social animals and when they're young they learn by watching and imitating the older ones around them. A litter of weaners without a sow or any adult relatives to copy is pretty much at a loss when they encounter something new. Maybe you could try a piglet hand puppet and make eating motions to give them ideas.

I met a veterinary scientist last week who did a Ph.D thesis on pig behaviour in commercial rearing settings. One of the things he found is that a group pf pigs raised together will all drink at the same time(s) and that when they do this is unique to a given cohort. This is probably linked to the way they sample and learn to eat novel foods, so a "role model" could be your answer.

I wonder if cooking the grain into a crude porridge might make it more appealing, at least to start.

At 8 weeks old my piglets hardly eat grain.
They seem to like dirt and grubs better.
Their bellies are small and it does not take much to fill them up at that age.
Have no worries, they will start eating grain... in fact, I predict that they will be pigging out on it within the next 8 weeks.