Probably the biggest health problem in mini pigs is obesity. That’s one reason you hear people say they bought a “mini” pig and it grew to be 100 lbs. You will also hear online that breeders of minis “starve” their babies to keep them small.

Agricultural departments and organizations concerned with world wide food supply use a formula that is called an FCR (Food conversion ratio) It established how much food an animal needs to produce a pound of meat for human consumption. The ratios are widely accepted. Cattle, for example are 5-20. Goats and lamb are 4.5-6. Pigs are 3-3.2. In layman’s terms, it means pigs turn everything they eat into meat. They don’t move much, so they don’t use up a lot of energy playing or frolicking. They don’t hunt or scavenge. Their super power is turning almost anything into meat. It’s no wonder they can easily become obese.

Add to that their adaptability. This means that young piglets who are overfed will grow in size and bone to accommodate their weight.  No, you aren’t going to get a 150 lb pig, but it’s going to go over the size it should be. 

Take a look at the chart at the top of the page. I found this years ago from one of the major vet schools in the US, although by now I don’t remember which one.  Be sure to check your pig at least once a week and make sure it isn’t starting to bulge on the hips!  Don’t look at the stomach. If they have been grazing, for example, they will look fat in the stomach. In that case, cut down on the evening feeding. Piglets will go home eating only ¼ a cup of food morning and evening. Full grown mini pigs should get around a cup morning and night. This makes them a bargain on the food budget.  Always feed a food designed for mini pigs. For years the go to feed was Mazuri, produced by Land of Lakes for their zoo feed division. Now there are several alternatives. Do not feed general pig feed. It often contains growth hormones, something mini pigs do NOT need!

It’s the snacks you have to watch. Pigs can eat anything you can eat. They can also eat almost any other kind of food. They are very efficient eating machines. As mentioned in another article, they will eat goat feed, horse feed, they love cat food and dog food (though it’s too high in protein and not at all good for them.) One of our pigs lives in a town house and his owner has bowls of nuts around since he loves them. The poor pig is so overweight he can hardly move.

Bessie is another example. We have her mother, father and sister. None of them are over 40 lbs. Her owners let the grandchildren feed her bags of cookies. She was so overweight she couldn’t walk. And she had developed such a sweet tooth she wouldn’t eat any of the low calory vegeta.bles we gave her when we put her on a diet. We have about 20% of the weight off of her after about 4 months and she is grazing on grass but she still has a long way to go. It was the pig version of the 600 lb man!

Obesity is the number one health problem in mini pigs.