Thanks everyone for your answers -
All of our pigs *love* getting rubs too & they'll lay down so we can give their bellies a good scratch too - we had no idea when we started this that they'd be so much fun.
I've heard of the pig oil so we'll have to see if we can get it around here - no one else seems to be doing pigs so the merchants/shops tend to be low on supplies.
Suppose I should do a bit of introducing seeing how I've finally stumbled upon an active forum for smallholding pig raisers -
My husband & I have a number of acres that're quite rough & in desperate need for some grading/plowing/deweeding & planting. So, we started looking into various animals to help us w/ the grunt work. Hubby has lots of experience w/ cattle & sheep but they were both too much initial cost so we started looking into pigs & goats.
Long story short, we now have 5 pigs, 3 chickens and 2 goats, and everyday we're looking at more land they've helped us recover & root up. Along the way (and we've only been at it for 6 weeks now) we've completely fallen in love w/ the pigs (but not enough to forget they will ultimately be filling our freezer) and we're thinking to breed the sows to replace & grow our herd.
We've been keeping everyone completely outside but the pigs & chickens have shelters. We're feeding the pigs a mixture of maize, soya & pig nuts, along w/ whatever veggie kitchen scraps & drippings we can manage. Everyone's gaining weight slowly, but they look fantastic (with little/no back fat) and we're in no hurry anyway.
Our only problem thus far (other than the inevitable escapes from the pens & munching through the veggie garden) is the skin condition I described in my first post. Fingers crossed it keeps up that way.