Hand rearing piglet

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Jax — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:59:53 GMT

[quote user="nicky-noo"]I appologise for the lack of commas in this post my GSD decided to remove that key from the keyboard![/quote]

Hehe, that made me giggle!! :) X

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:37:31 GMT

He is doing really well. They have been outside for a few weeks now but need to be caught soon (always fun!) We took him away because he was so cold much smaller than the others and couldn't get off his side due to weakness - if we had left him with the sow he would either have perished or she would have lay on him. What also didn't help was we had a car rally going past the farm that night and the roads were closed for 6 hours my dad was away and I had to go home to my animals because the rally was going past my house to and I wanted to be with my dogs incase the noise freaked them out hence taking the piglet away to keep it safe. The only other time we've taken a piglet away the mother had rejected it and he had the wounds to show for it but he was that bit older and stronger and could lap and never went back to mum.

I appologise for the lack of commas in this post my GSD decided to remove that key from the keyboard!

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and advice I appreciate it. Plan definitely is to take the boar away this year to stop them farrowing when it's really cold as they really are outside semi free-range pigs and get very upset being shut in.

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Saskia Quinn — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:49:58 GMT

how did the little piglet do? did it survive?

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:58:36 GMT

Ok this came through on the 15th but l am just sorting emails and missed it am sorry but it may be of use for future.

A person l know has pigs and l contacted him for advice:

First, and most importantly, did the piglet suckle from the sow in the first 24 hours? If not, then they'd be better off putting it down. The piglet needs the high levels of colostrum that it gets in those first hours and without it, it's not going to thrive and will almost certainly sicken.

After that, the best replacement milks (in order of best to worst) are:

* Sow milk replacer
* Goat milk replacer
* Condensed milk diluted with 33% water and only for immediate short-
term use while you're getting proper replacer
* 600 ml whole, full-cream milk, 1 egg yolk, quarter teaspoon of
citric acid (eg lemon juice) and half teaspoon cod liver oil. Whisk
and feed, but again emergency use only while you're getting proper
replacer

The milk should be given using a baby bottle with teat. The milk must be at body temperature and the piglet will need feeding every 2-3 hours for the first 48 hours, then every four hours. After 5-7 days, the piglet can be taught to lap from bowl and can be fed four times a
day.

Specialist piglet start creep feed can be introduced around 14 days, but it absolutely must be the right, specially formulated feed. It's the feed that commercial piggeries use to wean very young piglets so they can maximise efficiency and it does the job.

The piglet can be weaned around 28 days, the same as the commercial piggeries do. Ideally, weight would be around 6kg.

The piglet will also need an iron injection or iron paste. Piglets have very limited iron reserves and those reared indoors must have additional iron or they will suffer anaemia.

Incidentally, newly farrowed piglets should almost always be left with the sow. Far too many people get all touchy feely and take small or poorly ones away—it's a complete no-no. By all means try resuscitating ones that aren't breathing, clean up ones that are
genuinely stuck in the sac, or even move them from the rear of the sow to her teats, but that's about it. Even if the sow dies, it's worth letting the piglets suckle until the carcass starts to cool and the colostrum dries up.

I'd only remove piglets if the sow rejects them or tries to kill them (sometimes happens with a first time sow). I keep tubes of pig colostrum substitute and sow milk replacer handy for genuine emergencies like that but by and large piglets should always stay
with the sow. (I swear a lot when I see TV programmes where the warm fuzzy brigade take piglets away because they look fragile, delicate, poorly, etc. No, no, no! )

About six hours after the last piglet has been farrowed, I give them all a once over. Any with defects (blind anus, clubbed feet, humped backs, blindness, etc) are put down and then the rest are left to get on with. I tend to keep watch over them for 24-36 hours when the sow is a first-timer or when I know she's clumsy galumph.

I use Volac Faramate Sow Milk Replacer and Volac Volostrum Pig Paste Piglet Supplement.

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Mac Feather — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:37:24 GMT

I love Gloucester old spots!

Re: Hand rearing piglet

ShropshireLass — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:52:48 GMT

Gloucester Old Spots and Berkshires. Piggy-Sue the expectant mum looks to be bagging up...countdown has started..

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Mac Feather — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:51:24 GMT

[quote user="ShropshireLass"]Good luck, my sow is due to farrow on Sunday but hopefully I won't need this formula![/quote]

What breed of pigs do you have? I lurve pigs.

Re: Hand rearing piglet

ShropshireLass — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:08:20 GMT

Hello there,

1 pint of cows milk

1 pint of water

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon of glucose

1 teaspoon of citric acid

1 teaspoon of cod liver oil

You said you had experience with had rearing pigs, but apparently piglets can be very reluctant to feed from a bottle and should be encouraged to lap.

Good luck, my sow is due to farrow on Sunday but hopefully I won't need this formula!

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Vicky RVN — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:57:48 GMT

Glad the little thing is doing well

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Mac Feather — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:23:43 GMT

Have you got them under a heat lamp?

What breed are your pigs? We had Tamworths- they were such characters!

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:16:15 GMT

well we continued with the cows milk and sugar then this morning he went back to mum and seems to be doing really well was just to weak before now - so fingers crossed he'll be okay they are normally outside pigs and she is a good mother but because it's so cold she's in a stable with them so think it was just strange for her which made her more aggitated and we think he may have got bashed against the wall - but since we don't agree with crate rearing it's a chance we have to take i guess.

Thanks for all your support I don't know about using goats milk may be better but have a plentiful supply of fresh cows milk on tap!

it was quite hard seeing him go back but know he'll be better off with mum. Plus my dogs liked him but the noise freaked them out a bit!

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Mac Feather — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:24:33 GMT

Havent a clue about piglets, used to have adult pigs around in my younger day- love them.

Would it be worth using glucose powder or lectade to pep him up before going back to his mum?

Sorry Im not much use but I hope piglet is o.k.

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:22:31 GMT

Awwww how cute!! Just curious cause i know nothing about it. What's the difference in feeding him cows milk over goats milk?

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Maisy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:19:05 GMT

No help here I'm afraid just wanted to say I hope little piglet does well

Re: Hand rearing piglet

Phrin Vernon RVN — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:41:51 GMT

no advice i'm sorry, but hope he is ok!

this might help - i just googled

http://www.thepigsite.com/forums/