Why won't my pigs eat vegetables?

[lookout]

Good day hog farmers! Long time hog reader, first time hog poster.
I have my first two pigs for about 5 days now. They're approx 9 week olds, breed unknown, male and a female.
They were weaned onto hog grower and I brought them here initially feeding them the same. I've introduced them to such delectables as apples, oranges, romaine and loose lettuce, as well as other sundry kitchen throw offs. They won't go for it, they are quite angry with me wanting me to feed them all day and I have not! I'm waiting for them to clean up what's in their pails! They have eaten eggs and a tiny bit of dog food I introduced as an experiment. My goal is to feed them hog grower supplemented by quite a bit of greens that I have available. But they don't seem interested with this plan.

Is this normal, will they grow into liking the greens, will they only eat the hog grower, should I starve them some more? I think I caught them eating straw!

[SkFarm25]

Im no expert on pigs but I have kept them since i was a kid, my young ones were never quite sure what table scraps were at the start either if i recall, but it sure didn't take long for them to catch on. I always mixed my scraps with my slop though, was a grain water and milk slop, so they didn't have much choice but to eat it, maybe that helped. Sorry I can't be more help, best of luck

[Brad H.]

Let them put some pounds on. Once they get to a certain weight you wont throw them much of anything that they wont eat.

[farmertrappe]

Up to last year i got a lot of left over produce from farm stands. When the pigs had a choice they would always their favorite stuff first. Lopes and any other melons then corn, leafy greens then tomatoes. Some pigs would kill each other for tomatoes, other would not touch them. I agree with bhag149 when they get some pounds on they will eat just about anything.

[lookout]

Well I've given up on the "keep em hungry" routine as that wasn't working. I guess I'll just keep feeding them and see! Thanks for the advice!

[trappingtime0]

Pigs will eat straw and hay believe it or not. most people say they don't but they absolutely will. They should be going nuts over the vegtables not sure why they arent maybe just not quite big enough? Try to throw them a chick carcass someday mine always looveeeeee them. Just give it to them. I just got a pregnant guilt a few days ago and she is loving her grain and corn. when I had 3-4 in the past I would give them a little corn and all the scraps I could. The only thing they didn't care for was squash zucchini and cucumbers... not sure why but they didn't eat them. they also love pumpkins and just make sure they have plenty of ground to root. I made a portable pen that I drag around to keep them on fresh ground daily. good luck!  

[mrchicken]

just be careful if you feed them birds.
FIL told me a story from when he was a kid back in the 40's.
They would shoot blackbirds and crows in the corn patch with a .22 If they didn't need to pluck and eat em (hard times) they would just pitch them in the hog pen and let them eat em.
He finally got big enough to use the 12 ga and clobbered a pile of birds. Threw them in the hog pen and the next day had 2 dead hogs.
Ooooh he was in trouble! Turns out they gobbled up the birds and tried to swallow them whole. Feathers/wings got stuck and they choked to death.
After that, they always cut the wings and tails off.

[lookout]

Well thanks for the advice! They slowly started to eat veggies and I have a regular box of old veggies and fruits from the local grocer. They eat it all now!! Just had to put some pounds on and get comfortable I guess.

[ninedeer]

as mentioned give them some time to get a little bigger they will come to liking all the fruits and veggies you give them.I raise a few feeder pigs every year later on in the year when the garden is coming along I will feed the pigs veggies.they love cucumbers and all the leafy greens from the plants.

[Tim bly]

Young pigs need a high protein diet when they get older they will go for the greens