Use your hands, not just your eyes
A Kunekune pig's thick coat and naturally round shape hide extra weight from a casual glance, so your hands give the honest answer. Stand beside the pig and press your palms gently along its ribs: on a correctly fed Kunekune you can feel the ribs under a thin, smooth covering without digging. If you have to push through soft fat to find them, or cannot find them at all, the pig is carrying too much. Run the same check over the hips and spine. Bones that feel sharp and obvious suggest the opposite problem, but in pet Kunekunes the far more common finding is padding everywhere, building up so gradually that weekly handling is the only way to catch it early.
Fat shows in specific places on a Kunekune
An overfed Kunekune pig deposits fat in recognisable spots. Rolls build over the shoulders and neck, the belly drops and swings as the pig walks, and heavy jowls blur the line of the jaw. The most serious deposit sits above the eyes, where fat pads can push down over the eyelids and narrow or even block the pig's vision, a welfare problem sometimes called fat blindness. A pig that starts bumping into gates, startling at movement it once saw coming, or holding its head oddly may be telling you its eyesight is compromised by condition rather than by an eye injury. Those visible changes mean the diet conversation is overdue, not just beginning.
Audit everything the pig actually eats
Owners who overfeed a Kunekune rarely do it with the bucket alone. Add up the whole day: the two measured meals, the treats from visitors, the windfall fruit in the orchard corner, the bread a neighbour passes over the fence, and rich grazing in a growing season. Kunekunes are persuasive beggars with excellent memories for who feeds them, and a pig visited by several people can eat several unrecorded extras daily. Weighing the official ration is a good start, but the honest audit often finds the surplus hiding in snacks and second helpings. Write down everything for a few days and the pattern usually explains the pig's shape without any mystery.
Trim portions gradually and raise activity
Correcting an overfed Kunekune works best as a slow squeeze rather than a sudden diet. Reduce bucket portions a little at a time, keep forage available so the pig still spends its day grazing and rooting, and swap rich treats for pieces of vegetable so the social routine survives the cut. Encourage movement by scattering part of the ration across the paddock so the pig walks and roots for it instead of standing at a trough. Recheck ribs and hips with your hands every couple of weeks and expect visible change to take months, not days. Crash reductions leave a pig hungry, noisy and determined to break into feed stores, which helps nobody.
When extra weight needs a vet conversation
An overweight Kunekune pig that is also lame, reluctant to walk, breathing hard at rest, or losing vision to fat over its eyes should be seen by a vet rather than simply fed less at home. Excess weight strains joints and feet, and a pig that stops moving comfortably enters a cycle of eating more and doing less. The vet can rule out other causes of weight gain, check feet and legs, and help set a realistic reduction pace for your pig's age and health. Bringing an honest record of meals, treats and grazing makes that conversation far more useful, and keeping that daily log in KinsLe Care Teams means every feeder records the Kunekune's real intake in one place.