When you have plans of owning a potbelly pig, you should take the necessary steps in learning what do potbelly pigs eat. A good and healthy diet is important when raising a potbellied pig. Pigs have voracious appetites and they will eat anything in their quest for food. This is one the reason why you should be in charge of what do potbelly pigs eat so you can select what type of healthy foods your pet should consume. For potbelly pigs to remain in condition, they should maintain a low-protein, low salt diet. Even though they adore snacks, as a pet owner, it is your responsibility to fight the urge to feed them sugary treats and give them the proper nutrition.
To know what do potbelly pigs eat, you start feeding them quality pig chow or pig feed as your foundation. Though these feeds have the necessary nutrients and minerals for their every day diet, you still need to incorporate some form of protein in their daily meals.
If you think fruits and vegetables are included in what do potbelly pigs eat, then you are on the right track. They would a different flavor to their day-to-day meals.
Pigs should be fed twice a day. The young ones may have additional meals but the mature and older ones should stick to two a day so they won’t have the opportunity to be fat and obese that would cause health problems in the future.
If you observe their metabolism and level of activity, you would have a working idea on how much or how many would you feed your potbelly pigs. Pig chow comes with recommended serving size, but you should adjust it to their needs as well.
Another important thing besides having knowledge on what do potbelly pigs eat is to make sure they have ample supply of drinking water all the time. By drinking a lot of liquids, it is a way for them to cool down.
During their training period, they would be given treats for positive reinforcement, it is up to you to make sure that those treats should be healthy options. Stay away from snacks that contain sugars of any type like molasses, sugar beet or sugar cane.
As a final note, you might probably get some stupid suggestions like underfeeding your pig so it can retain its cute and small stature, better disregard their advice. Anyone who tells you this should be reported to the authorities for animal cruelty.