Livestock Microlivestock

[Faroe]

Did a favor for a neighbor last week, and in return, he gave me a boar guinea pig! He promised me a female after his sow gives birth.

The Peruvians eat these. There is an interesting article out there on how Petco/Petsmart (?) was selling the large meat kind as pets. They got a lot of flack for that, but when I first read the article, I was thinking, "I want to raise these."

Anyway, my little guy is the true pet variety, not the "Mejorado Criollo" (something like that) meat type. Not planning to eat this one, he is a pet. However, any offspring produced is another story. The dogs can enjoy them if we don't. They are also used as snake food, albeit with some controversy about nutrition (fatty), and some claim the pelt causes blockages in boas.

 

[Cardinal]

I'd like to look into the meat kind. Interesting idea.

 

[Faroe]

The article should come up easily enough on a web search. The article is maybe a couple years old...don't know if the stores are still selling the Mejorado's. I don't see that size matters all that much - just serve more.

I'm also looking into maybe pigeons or quail, but my current flock has a mite problem, and I don't want to make that worse with more birds.

The other direction I want to go in for feeding the dogs is fancy rats. Ours get lots of butchered rabbit and eggs, but we still serve dog kibble. Taste of the Wild, Salmon. Frankly, I think it smells gross. The dogs don't seem totally excited about it, either. (I haven't trusted dog food since my beloved Pearl died around the time of the Diamond recall, even though our bag's mfr. numbers/info. were not listed on that recall.)