Tima’s Summer Diet
Tima will share her diet with you! She swears by it and at it, sometimes!
Timatanga Moana (we call her Tima for short) is a kunekune pig. And kunekune pigs can put on the wrong kind of weight if they are fed the wrong kind of diet. To live a long and happy life kunekune need eat no grains. Her weight loss program is all about the veges!
Can you see her shadow here? Looking up at me adoringly – I mean hungrily!
Now that the winter is drawing to a close and the gardens are being prepared and the doors are open to the house, Tima has been sent behind the gate to her summer pastures. Or she would be eating everything in the gardens and stealing potatoes from the house. Now is the time to lose her winter weight.
KuneKune turn proteins into fat at an alarmingly fast rate so she has a field to herself and she gets no grains. And now that she is away from the feed hut she cannot steal grain from the ducks either. I call it the diet chain. Like all my pigs she is a vegetarian and she eats piles of vegetables and sprouts. Kunekune do not dig holes in the ground, they are grazers, so she spends a lot of time out in the field rummaging about for emerging grasses.
This is the perfect diet for her.
I tell all the children visitors that this is the pig they can pet and love on. But don’t let her out of her field. She will ransack the place. Maybe she is descended from a a vandal pig.
Actually the kunekune originate in New Zealand – no vandals reached there!
(To my horror I have discovered that Americans eat the kunekune (our New Zealand national pig!) but we won’t talk about that).
We always hoped Tima would breed but her ridiculously expensive and highly bred boar put his hip out when he was really young – do you remember Tane? He was such a nice boar. So they were a really lovely child free couple for many years until Tane died during the dark days of the pandemic.
Since then Tima and Wai keep each other warm in the winter. And Wai is happy to wave her bye bye in the summer. Wai is a bit of a loner and Tima is a bit of a merry widow!
I hope you have a grand day.
Cecilia
Weather: High of 59F, some cloud some sun, maybe a little rain later.
PS Here is a sweet story about Tima – do you remember when she went to the library?
19 Comments on “Tima’s Summer Diet”
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I love catching up with some of our older friends. I wish Tima plenty of sprouts and budding grasses as she begins to venture out to greener pastures.
She does love pasture but is so naughty when the fields are full of corn or wheat!
Ah yes, Tane. Sweet sweet little thing. By the way, I meant to say that your pages and images are loading very quickly. They’ve never been particularly slow for me (I have a speedy connection), but they’re blink-fast now.
Hmm/ probably because Duane made me optimize them. The next rendition of TKG will have built in optimization apparently!
I saw pictures of someone’s kune kune litter, and I naturally thought of you!
They were probably going to eat them: 😢
Animals are so much like humans. I think that often, as I watch and care for them.
Animals give us all hope
From the pov of planet earth we all need to eat a la Tima’s summer diet…
Tiny Tima! It seems impossible that she was that small. I had a memory of Tane and Tima coming off the plane in crates. I think it was an airport shot but maybe not…She is such a lovely and dear pig.
I love hearing about farmy characters from the past. Tane was such a little darling. Glad to hear that Wai and Tima come together in the winter. Good news as Wai has always been such a loner.
I remember when they were young ! I learned today that they originated in NZ…poor Tane, he did present lame a lot ,if memory serves. I am loving reading about the farmy on the daily. 🥳☮️💜
I remember the little Tima who came into the house and thought she was human! …and Tane was such a sweet pig – he deserved a longer life 😉
Amazing such a good pig! And you have a big hand in the care! Thanks!
Kunekunes are eaten in this country? That is something I have never heard of or have ever seen available for purchase to eat. Is it maybe people raising them for their own consumption and if so, let’s hope it’s a very few people at that! 🙁 Although I don’t discriminate between breeds to eat. A pig is a pig and I don’t eat them.
On another note..speaking of folks that used to blog or maybe still do..do you remember the name of Jean’s blog in France? I would like to pop over and see what she and her family are up to on their cattle farm. 🙂
I love reading about what she eats, and what she’s up to! So nice to be caught up. And I don’t think I was reading the block back in 2014, so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the pictures of her and reading about her at the library. What a darling she is!
I don’t know who’d keep kunekune for meat. They grow much more slowly than feeder pigs. Even Guinea Hogs are faster, and they take two years to come to size. Not something any pig farmer or homesteader would really consider, I think. I’m glad Tima was destined for a charmed life of being loved, admired, having adventures, breaking and entering and eating almost to her heart’s content.
Except she is on her diet now!
I think they market the meat as mini roasts or something.
Madness…