Hello Kathleen,

For starters I want to tell you that I had ordered your book back in November, and was very impressed with it when I received it. I had ordered a few books before yours from Amazon.com that were ok , but your book is really easy to follow and down to earth and very informative AAAAAAAAAAA++++++++++.

My question is in late October my wife and I bought a baby potbelly pig knowing nothing about them. The woman gave us a bag of feed and a book about potbelly pigs. At the time the pig was only about 3 weeks old. She had told us that this pig had eaten pig food but drank water from both a baby bottle and out of a dish. The first night he really didn't eat to much and only drank out of a bottle. I called her and asked her about this this she said that it was pretty normal because it was around strangers. She told us to feed him baby cereal and gradually feed him his food. Well it's now Jan. and he still doesn't eat the pig food. We try fruits and vegetables ,and she had told us yogurt, on occasions he will he them all. When ever we try mixing his pig food in the cereal even the littlest bit he will not eat it. Is there any kind of pig food we should try first or will he eat it eventually. Please e-mail me back with an answer Thank You for your time.

Donald Hartman

Note from Kathleen:

This is a common problem for early weaned baby piglets. Piglets do not even start eating solid foods until they are about 3 weeks old. Their Moms teach them how to eat. In the worst cases these early weaned piglets never eat solid food and die. This baby has just not learned its piglet lessons from its Mom and littermates.

Donald and his family can take measures that will help their baby mature to be a well adjusted pig, but without informed training, 95% of all pigs who bite and become aggressive between one and two years are weaned before they are 5 weeks old, or are bottle fed.

Kathleen