Help me settle this.

[maizey]

they will kill and eat snakes and are used to clear out "snakey" areas that folks don't want snakes hanging around in...just in case you have a snakey area

 

[arabianequine]

No meat or chocolate to our pigs.

I don't give any animal we raise for meat meat. I just don't think they should eat their own kind

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

btw, pigs WILL kill rats! they hate them with a passion if they catch one.

 

[sourland]

If pigs eat uncooked meat that is infected with Trichina, they can get trichinosis. If people eat their meat that is not properly cooked they can then in turn get trichinosis a disease that I know little about. I think there is something about the Trichina larvae causing extreme pain and potental blindness as they migrate throughout the body. For ome odd reason my brain is telling me that bear meat can also be a source of trichinosis.

 

[Redcatcher]

One thing for sure will kill a pig and that is coffee yogurt. I know someone who fed his pigs a couple of cases of coffee yogurt that was out of date and they died. The vet said all the caffeine in it gave them heart attacks.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Quote:
I think coffee is actually toxic to most animals. Same thing with avocadoes. For some reason humans can eat them without a problem, but most other animals die very quick deaths if they eat either of them! They are very high on the list of things not to feed exotic birds, and parrots can have just about anything (well except maybe junk food).

Also, cooked meat should be fine. Animals don't typically turn cannibalistic from trying meat a few times, even if it is uncooked. Your biggest concern with uncooked meat should be diseases. Cannibalism of pen mates is usually due to some other problem, whether it be stress, lack of space, hunger, dirty conditions, etc. Animals don't look at a piece of food (in this case meat) and say to themselves that it would taste just like the another animal! Of course there are always anomalies, but in my experience, it is rare to see spontaneous cannibalism.

 

[redhen]

Actually pigs are super, super smart...and they have a super sense of smell also...(I believe even better than good scent hounds)..
Soo... if i feed my pigs raw chicken... i have a strong suspicion that they WILL associate them with food.
Not worth the risk to me...

 

[Beekissed]

You are right. Pigs are omnivores and love meat. We used to feed them snakes we had killed, any groundhogs we had removed from our crop areas, any chicken scraps that the chickens didn't grab and run away with. No, they didn't turn cannibalistic and they were just fine to butcher and eat. No, we didn't get painful worm infestations from eating their meat.

Funny how so many people feel that chickens need animal protein but think pigs shouldn't have it. Pigs in the wild will eat just about anything they find on the forest floor...including fresh or rotten meats. Wild pig is a delicacy with a great flavor.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
OOh yeah..pigs LOVE meat! But i feed mine pig feed..it has everything they need in it. So i dont have to supplement with protein/meat.
But yeah... in the wild..they eat a LOT of meat... Snakes/birds/small critters/grubs..etc..

 

[dewey]

Contrary to long held beliefs, trich is about non-existant in the U.S. as far as pigs to human infection.

It's an old legacy that dies hard. As far as I'm aware here, feeding raw garbage has been illegal for a long time and those I know of that are raising pigs would never practice it, homestead or higher production, and they also practice good rodent/varmit control.

Non-pork sources are the greater risk in these latter years, such as eating improperly cooked wild game. Should a pig eat infected wild game or coon, rat, or possum, etc., different story...pigs are opportunistic eaters and will eat whatever they come across, still, proper cooking of meat makes trich an absolute non issue.

The local upscale salad bar or store purchased produce is much more deserving of "beware-to-eater".

My family farmed hogs since the 1920's on, back when it was a real concern, so, even in these days, being served a piece of pork that hadn't been cooked to shoe-leather just was not gonna happen.