How to Make Piggy Mash

I've also heard this stuff called Pellet Slurry, but I've made a slightly different mixture that my pigs like better. Thank goodness I've only needed it twice!

The way I used it was similar to the way you might use Critical Care. However, if you need Critical Care for your pig, get it! I only used this convenient concoction because I didn't have enough money for Critical Care. This is mostly for pigs in critical condition who can't eat food in some other way. For example, if they got their teeth knocked out or are too weak to eat pellets. This mixture can be made varying consistencies. It can easily be syringe fed, spoon fed, or put in a bowl for piggy to munch. Here is the recipe on how to make Piggy Mash.

Ingredients:
Your normal pellets, as I recall one cup of pellets=half a cup of powder.
Water, as much as you need to make the appropriate consistency.
A couple of poops from a healthy pig.
Vitamin drops can be good, too.
Coffee Grinder (Unless you want a lot of work using a rolling pin, I highly recommend coffee grinders.)
A bowl to make the mash in.
Something to feed the pig with.



Instructions:

Put the desired amount of pellets into the coffee grinder. Grind the pellets so that they are between Medium and Fine so that they mix up well. Don't grind up the healthy pig poop in your coffee grinder for obvious reasons. ***MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS NO COFFEE DUST OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT LEFT IN YOUR GRINDER, THIS WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR PIG!***



Next, take a couple spoonfuls into your mixing container. Mix with enough water to make it the consistency you want. Only add water at no more than 1-3 ML increments. This is to insure you don't ruin your mash with too much water.
Dryer Mash:



Runny Mash:


After you have a good consistency, add the healthy pig poop and the vitamin drops. Crush the healthy pig poop into you mixture, make sure it is well mixed otherwise a particularly grumpy pig might purposefully avoid it.

How to Feed:
Depending on the consistency of your mash, there are various ways you can feed it. I will only go over the two basic kinds, but be creative and find the way that works best for you and your pig.

--Spoon feeding works best when you have a pig that has a hard time eating its pellets and needs extra supplement, but isn't totally helpless. With this kind of feeding, all you need to do is get a nice spoonful and shove it under your pig's nose. Most of the time they'll start munching away. If they don't, just keep it in their face for a few minutes and if they still won't eat it put the mash away and come back in about half an hour. If the pig doesn't eat any mash (or other food) for three hours, make sure there isn't anything else wrong. Alternate a spoonful of Mash for 1 ML of water. Make sure your pig is hydrated! Here is a pigture of Comet (who is healthy) happily eating Piggy Mash:


--Syringe Feeding is typically needed when your piggy is in pretty bad shape and can't (or won't) eat the thicker stuff. You must have a very thin mix, almost like water, so that it can easily go into the syringe without choking your poor pig. Most pigs hate the mere thought of syringes, needless or otherwise, so this is a pretty difficult way to feed in most cases. What you have to do is hold the syringe in your dominant hand and the pig in the other. Use your thumb and index finger to hold the pig's head. Get the syringe in there without jabbing it too far back and slowly squirt the mash in. DON'T DO THIS TOO FAST! Your pig will start licking and you'll be able to tell how fast you need to go, just make sure you don't start spraying high-pressure jets of ground up pellets and water down your pig's throat. The key is imagining what would be comfortable for you if some giant creature were force-feeding you. Do the same for your pig. Alternate 1 ML of mash for 1 ML of water. Here is a pigture of Comet (healthy) unhappily eating Piggy Mash through the syringe. This was a very hard pigture to get and took several tries. You can kind of see how I'm holding her to get the syringe in:




Special thanks to Comet the guinea pig, for being my guinea pig for this article! She suffered being force-fed piggy mash several times. I took about twenty pictures of me feeding her, and only two turned out well. With each of the pictures she got fed. Her motto for this was "So that others may live." With any luck, someone will read this and their pig will be saved by piggy mash. Then Comet's suffering won't be for nothing. I gave my poor baby some extra veggies and hay after her ordeal. I'm not that mean!