Miss Piggy isn't a pig, she's a sheep, a yearling Cotswold and E'st a Laine Merino cross. She was a single lamb and weighed about 10 pounds when she was born, too large for the mamma sheep to birth on her own - so I pulled her. She has grown bigger than the other sheep, even the other two Cotswold/E'st a Laine Merino cross ewe lambs (but they were twins) because she is a greedy sheep. She has to be first to the food, climb on top to feed, even if it means on top of the other sheep or on top of the hay and she is always looking for the tastiest tidbits running from feeder to feeder in case there is something better in the next.
Miss Piggy has lovely fleece and is robust and healthy on a grass based diet. But she is greedy. Greedy sheep are often those who die from bloat. This happens because they find tasty morsels and eat and eat and eat until they are stuffed, sometimes a food too rich for the rumen, which cannot digest rich food at that rate. Then the rumen produces gas that the sheep cannot expel in either direction and literally they blow up like a balloon. I sure hope that does not happen to Miss Piggy. It did happen to her mother though, who was also a greedy sheep. She succumbed when she found a pocket of alfalfa in the hay and ate the whole thing. I found her the next morning as big as a blow up doll, feet stuck out in all directions. It must be a horrible way to die, not that there is a good way, but the pain must be terrible.
Anyhow, I cannot make my mind up to keep or sell Miss Piggy. The sheep will have to be divided for feeding from winter on with the small ones separate from the big ones. Miss Piggy hogs the feeder and pushes the little ones out, so they remain somewhat hungry. It will be better for them to be fed separately so they do not have to compete.
Today Miss Piggy, true her name, smelled grain in the bucket and though it was empty, stuck her head in and got stuck inside. She was hilarious while I fumbled with the camera, bouncing off the fence and into the other sheep who were curious as to what on earth she was doing. Ha ha Miss Piggy. You funny girl!
Miss Piggy has lovely fleece and is robust and healthy on a grass based diet. But she is greedy. Greedy sheep are often those who die from bloat. This happens because they find tasty morsels and eat and eat and eat until they are stuffed, sometimes a food too rich for the rumen, which cannot digest rich food at that rate. Then the rumen produces gas that the sheep cannot expel in either direction and literally they blow up like a balloon. I sure hope that does not happen to Miss Piggy. It did happen to her mother though, who was also a greedy sheep. She succumbed when she found a pocket of alfalfa in the hay and ate the whole thing. I found her the next morning as big as a blow up doll, feet stuck out in all directions. It must be a horrible way to die, not that there is a good way, but the pain must be terrible.
Anyhow, I cannot make my mind up to keep or sell Miss Piggy. The sheep will have to be divided for feeding from winter on with the small ones separate from the big ones. Miss Piggy hogs the feeder and pushes the little ones out, so they remain somewhat hungry. It will be better for them to be fed separately so they do not have to compete.
Today Miss Piggy, true her name, smelled grain in the bucket and though it was empty, stuck her head in and got stuck inside. She was hilarious while I fumbled with the camera, bouncing off the fence and into the other sheep who were curious as to what on earth she was doing. Ha ha Miss Piggy. You funny girl!
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