….Blogging about cabbages and kings since 2005.

Pigs are very sensitive to heat, and they do not sweat. Since they don’t sweat it is very important to help them keep cool, or they can get sick. Sweat cools the body down, and animals that don’t sweat need to keep cool other ways. Pigs also have very dry skin, and they don’t have much hair, so they are easily sunburned. You can protect your pig’s health by making sure you provide plenty of sunscreen, clean water, and shade.

When you get a pig make sure you have sunscreen (people sunscreen works fine) and a wading pool filled with water or a muddy soft spot that they can use, otherwise they will get sunburned.

They always, always, need lots of clean water. I found out that it is very hard to keep up with clean water, but it needs to be done.

Pigs need a shady spot to lie under that is open to breezes. We tied a tarp over the top of the Hog Panels.

Here is a wonderful web-site about keeping your pig safe, healthy, and cool.

Update: Pipsqueak posted a picture of the pigs (isn’t that perfectly alliterative?). The picture was taken last summer. A current picture of them would look more like something from your grocer’s shop.

I’m going to have to think of more interesting titles for these, or just live with monotony. The 71st “Christian Carnival” is up here. The Technogypsy had to deal with over 50 entries, and did a fine job. Some language makes this a PG rather than a G link, so d on’t say I didn’t tell you.

Before you get a pig always make sure you have a good place to keep it.

We had two Hampshire gilt piglets and kept them quite comfortably in a 4×4 Hog Panel fence. The fence is very easy to put together (it is also pretty cheap), and is also easy to move around to a different place when the spot it was on gets old.
We used for their shelter an old dog Igloo; this works really well for piglets.

You will eventually have to get a bigger fence (just add more hog panels) and a bigger shelter, but the Igloo works really well for a reasonable amount of time.

Come back for more JennyAnyDot’s Pig Facts ! (hopefully it won’t be too long before I post again )

We have a burn pile out in our yard. It has boxes in it. Today I was switching the horses, and I heard a chicken coming from that direction. Apparently a hen had decided a box in the burn pile was a suitable place to lay eggs. We hoped she was setting, but she left. *sigh*

A night or two ago, The Equuschick took herself to bed at the relatively early hour of 11 pm. She set her alarm, and then stopped short and stared at the clock in confusion. What was wrong with it? Why were there TWO little dots? She didn’t remember seeing two vertical dots there before. At least, not any time in the recent past. But wait, perhaps, she could remember. Yes, it was coming back to her. The “pm” meant something, yes, now she almost had it…

Oh. Duh. Yeah. “PM.” That’s all it meant. That the Equuschick was actually crawling into bed in the PM for once.

Still, it did look eerie and unfamiliar. The Equuschick is a creature of habit, and it is a great habit of hers to set her alarm clock right before bed and see only the one dot (representing ‘a.m.’).