Start With Water, Appetite, and a Nose-to-Tail Look
Yorkshires are large white pigs with erect ears and famously good mothering lines, and a healthy one should meet you bright, vocal, and interested in feed. Check drinkers first by pressing or tipping them yourself, because a blocked nipple drinker can leave a pen thirsty while the supply pipe still sounds full. Watch each pig eat: a Yorkshire that approaches slowly, leaves its ration, or is shouldered away repeatedly may be sore, unwell, or simply outranked, and each cause needs a different response from you that same day.
Measured Feeding and a Pen That Stays in Zones
Feed measured meals suited to whether the pig is growing, gestating, lactating, or simply a pet adult, because Yorkshires gain condition readily and extra weight loads their legs and feet. Keep feed dry and stored away from rodents, clear stale leftovers rather than topping them up, and spread feeding space so timid pigs are not forced to choose between eating and avoiding a pen mate. Pigs naturally keep a lying zone, a dunging zone, and a feeding zone when space allows, so arrange the pen to support that pattern instead of scattering bedding everywhere and wondering why it all turns foul.
Pale Skin Needs Daily Attention
That pink Yorkshire skin shows problems early if you look: sunburn across the shoulders on bright days, scratches from pen fittings, dry flaking in heated housing, and red patches where a pig has been rubbing. Provide real shade that covers the lying area at midday, a mud wallow in hot weather so pigs can coat the skin and cool themselves, and smooth any sharp bolt ends or broken feeder edges you find. In cold housing, deep dry straw matters more than heat for a healthy adult, while young piglets need a warm creep area they can leave as they choose.
Feet, Flooring, and Movement
Watch Yorkshires walk on their usual surface every day. Long toes, a cracked hoof wall, or a pig that shortens its stride on concrete should be noted before it becomes a pig reluctant to stand for feed. Keep floors grippy rather than polished smooth, bed heavily where pigs lie, and avoid forcing them to turn sharply on wet concrete when you move them. Rooting is not bad behaviour to be stopped but a daily need: provide soil, straw, or safe destructible material in a defined area so the drive to dig is spent there rather than on your gate posts and flooring.
Evening Bedding, Security, and When to Call for Help
At the last check, refresh the bed, confirm gates are latched against a clever snout, and make sure no pig is trapped, panting, or separated without water. Seek veterinary help promptly for a pig that stops eating entirely, breathes with effort at rest, cannot rise, has a sudden swollen joint, or shows repeated vomiting or watery scouring that does not settle, because pigs can go downhill faster than their size suggests. Keeping those feeding amounts, wallow checks, and bedding jobs in KinsLe Care Teams lets anyone covering your Yorkshires follow the same routine and leave a timed record of what was actually done.