I truly had no idea how wasteful my kitchen was. In fact, I thought I was doing pretty good at keeping my waste to a minimum, but that all changed the day we got pigs. I now understand that feeding pigs kitchen scraps is the secret to a no-waste kitchen!
Before, we composted some things, fed some things to the goats and others to the chickens. The dog ate more than his fair share of table scraps as well, but there were still things thrown away. Chickens enjoy a little pan of milk here and there, but not in the quantity that we produce. Sometimes you can only sell, eat or give away so many eggs when you have let them really pile up on the counter!
The pigs, however, changed everything! I have never seen an animal receive so much joy from eating our “garbage.” Of course, I don’t give them anything that is truly growing green fur in the back of the fridge, but pretty much everything else is fair game for them! With few exceptions, they eat anything I feed them, like . . . well . . . PIGS!
I have been cleaning out the pantry and I was amazed by the volume of food in there that we were never going to eat. The last four sad crackers. A giant box containing half a cup of stale granola. The list goes on and on. I am both amazed and embarrassed by how much pig feed I found wasting space in my cabinets!
To facilitate the capture of “free pig food” I simply place a stainless steel bucket (affiliate link) on the kitchen counter for the family to throw their leftovers in. We scrape plates into the bucket after meals. Add in leftover milk, soggy cereal, veggie trimmings, and almost anything you can produce in a kitchen and the pigs love us for it! We usually take it out to the pigs twice a day so that it doesn’t sit around getting stinky.
The pigs also get any excess milk from Beulah Belle (the Jersey cow) and the goats that we can’t drink and any whey leftover from cheese making! They also enjoy cheese that doesn’t quite turn out! Literally, no food goes to waste here anymore!
As an added bonus, you should see the “doggy bags” I take home from restaurants! If anyone saw me scraping the potato skins and butter into a box with salad and soup they would probably send me in to be “evaluated!” I just see no reason that the food we didn’t eat should go into a dumpster instead of going home to nourish our pigs!
Can you believe I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet?? Are you ready for it?
They are turning our kitchen waste into BACON!
Pigs are magicians.
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We are buying our first small acreage (2.4 acres) and my 14 year old wants to get a couple of pigs. This may have given his argument a little validity although we still don’t have enough room for them to roam and forage.
Pigs are magicians. That’s awesome. 🙂
My husband, Eric is the one who really wanted pigs from the beginning, but I really do enjoy them now!
Did you have to get any types of permits for the pig to be in back yard with the smell
No permits are needed in my county at all. Also, with the pigs roaming the whole pasture, there is no smell!
I use to have a compost pile…then we got chickens. We lost our compost pile as they went through that thing and had it ate in a day or so. EVERYTHING goes to the chickens. I wonder who’d eat more…chickens or pigs…?? 😉
Btw…your piggies are so cute!!!
~Honey
Battle of the compost pile! I like the sound of it! 🙂
Most people are not aware that pigs are actually omnivores like we are and will literally eat anything we will. We had two pans on the counter when I was a kid. One for the dog and one for the pigs. In the wild, pigs will chase down deer. Our domesticated pig is only a couple of generations away from reverting back to wild boars. One of the reasons the wild boars in the country have become such a problem.
That’s a great point that I probably should have included! Pigs are even more omnivorous than humans, because they can even eat grass and hay! 🙂 I never understand people boasting about the vegetarian diets they feed their pigs or chickens!
Need more info because I am a starter farmer
I would be glad to help, is there anything specific you want to know?
is there any thing we should NOT feed the pigs?
I stay away from feeding them coffee grounds or tea leaves as well as avocados or raw potato skins (although some people say these are fine.)
At what age did you start giving your pigs scraps? 6 weeks? 12 weeks? This is our first year with 2 pigs.
I’m sorry for the delay in responding, I seem to have let myself get terribly behind! We always buy weaned feeder pigs, so we give them scraps from the beginning. I’m not sure when to start with a baby pig though. Perhaps someone else can give us an answer…
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I have a couple questions about pigs eating kitchen scraps, I”m just starting out with a pig and 4 things commonly in my compost bucket make me wonder, “can I feed that to a pig?” Egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, banana peels. Maybe you have some experience feeding some of these to pigs? I’d love to know your thoughts.
Banana peels are an absolute yes! My goats think they are candy, however, so the pigs rarely get them. I held off on eggshells for a long time, but one day I threw them in the pig bucket and they ate them, so they get about half of the eggshells we use. The others I feed back to the chickens. I avoid feeding coffee grounds and tea leaves to them for two reasons. First, I think they are good for the garden, so I usually toss them there. Second, I don’t really want to see what kind of mischief my pigs could come up with if I caffeinated them! 😉
Thank you, that is helpful to me! You’re right, I would probably have a crazy animal on my hands if I fed her coffee grounds and tea.
Love your post!!
My husband just jumped in and brought 6 piglets home!! 😮
After the shock wore off I started asking around for free food lol! our friend works at our local super matket in produce SO she is going to bag up stuff for me and leave by the dumpster 🙂 our local mexican resturant and another restaraunt my son works at agreed to give us scraps so 🙂 excited about all the free food we will be getting.
Our neighbor gave us all her “decoration” pumpkins and cushaws!! 10 of them!! Now I took a few for ourselves but gave some to the pigs, ducks and chickens 🙂
What about bones?!? I worry about bones!!
We have had them since sat and man they are some digging machines lol