Sow had 14 piglets last night..and question?

JennNY · #1 03/15/07, 01:34 PM

Our dear sow had 14 piglets last night.. she is a great mom and is doing well, so are 12 of them. We have the 2 little runts in our house now, under heat lamp and trying to bottle feed them. Have any of you tried this before? The 2 runts are about 1/2 the size of the others and were getting trampled on and weren't doing well, so I thought.."Hey, this can't hurt" and brought them inside for us to tend to. They seem to be doing ok, one is taking the bottle fairly well, the other not too much, but she is getting some milk.

Any advice, wisdom?
Thanks,
Jenn

stanb999 · #2 03/15/07, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JennNY

Our dear sow had 14 piglets last night.. she is a great mom and is doing well, so are 12 of them. We have the 2 little runts in our house now, under heat lamp and trying to bottle feed them. Have any of you tried this before? The 2 runts are about 1/2 the size of the others and were getting trampled on and weren't doing well, so I thought.."Hey, this can't hurt" and brought them inside for us to tend to. They seem to be doing ok, one is taking the bottle fairly well, the other not too much, but she is getting some milk.

Any advice, wisdom?
Thanks,
Jenn

It sounds harsh but take then back to momma. They will probably not make it but if you were to keep them they will take more feed, care, and have health issues. They just wont do as well as the others long term. Yes I know they are cute tho.

JennNY · #3 03/15/07, 02:32 PM

We do take them to the momma and try and get them to nurse.... they just get trampled on by the others.. they are getting stronger, so I think if we give them a little time, they'll be back in no time.
And they aren't cute!! LOL I think they get cute around 3-4 weeks!

Jenn

HogEmAll · #4 03/15/07, 03:22 PM

I have raised runts like that in the past. Sometimes they come around, other times they do not. I would feed them a special milk replacer from the local feed store, made for pigs, goats, puppies, and I think calves too. You simply had to mix it with varying amounts of water depending of animal species.

agmantoo · #5 03/15/07, 06:19 PM

How many nipples does the sow have? If there is not a place for each of them do not take them to the sow. Have the strongest pigs on the sow and take the risk of hand feeding with the weak ones or kill them.

Misty · #6 03/16/07, 06:41 AM

Yes, it is harsh, but nature has a way of taking care of things. If you are going to bottle feed them, keep them with the sow and go out there and do it. If you reintroduce them to the litter after being in the house, they will more than likely fight until they die. So you will then have pigs that you have to make special accomodations for forever. Then you can't butcher them because you bottle fed them etc...the problems just go on and on.

JennNY · #7 03/16/07, 01:42 PM

why wouldn't we be able to butcher them b/c we bottle fed them?

we lost one so far.. it isn't the 2 we have in the house, it was another "runt" but bigger than the other 2, we kept it in w/the others... she/he got sat on or lost in the hay, not sure which.

The other 2 are doing well... tho I do think it isn't worth it, but we'll see. I am interested in just doing it, sort of as an experiment, to see what will happen. B/c if they were outside, they surely would get trampled on, so why not? right?

Thanks for the advice and thoughts. I greatly appreciate it!
jenn

barnyardfun · #8 03/21/07, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JennNY

why wouldn't we be able to butcher them b/c we bottle fed them?

we lost one so far.. it isn't the 2 we have in the house, it was another "runt" but bigger than the other 2, we kept it in w/the others... she/he got sat on or lost in the hay, not sure which.

The other 2 are doing well... tho I do think it isn't worth it, but we'll see. I am interested in just doing it, sort of as an experiment, to see what will happen. B/c if they were outside, they surely would get trampled on, so why not? right?

Thanks for the advice and thoughts. I greatly appreciate it!
jenn

Don't feel bad! I would do exactly what you are doing. There is no way I could knowingly leave them out there to die!! Good luck with your babies!

Ronney · #9 03/22/07, 06:16 AM

Agree with Agman. Runts have a hard row to hoe and more often than not will make it with a helping hand.

I've lost count of the number of runts I've reared successfully; most have gone on to make very good pork but one of my breeding sows was a runt and is a brilliant producer and one of my two boars was also a runt. Yet another is now getting rather elderly but is a much loved pet boar 100 miles away and still manages to service the owners equally loved pet sow.

I gave up on bottle feeding by accident. The runt wasn't going to have a bar of it so in desperation I mixed up a thin slurry of cows milk and Farex, prised it's mouth open and slid it in off a teaspoon. The first teaspoon ended up stuck to the walls of the dining room (ever tried to clean Farex off walls) as the piglet shook it's head and spat it out. The second teaspoon went down it's gullet and that was it. Two feeds later, it was feeding itself. The first couple of feeds can be a bit messy but if the piglet has the will to live it catches on pretty quick and they grow like Topsy on the Farex.

Good girl for giving it a go - if they live you have succeeded and beaten the odds, if they don't make it, at least you tried. Good luck.

Cheers,
Ronnie

posifour11 · #10 03/22/07, 07:19 AM

we mix goat milk, a couple of eggs and a little syrup and put it in a shallow rubber dish for them. they get the hang of it pretty quick.

JennNY · #11 03/22/07, 01:33 PM

Thanks for all the advice and wisdom. Our 2 little runts died.

I was very sad, esp. since they seemed to be doing well. I fed one around 12AM or so,(it was doing well and looked spunky) got up a little while later and it was on it's last breath. The same happened to the stronger of the 2. It was lively, running around.. fed it, alittle while later went and checked it and it was limp and barely living. I have no idea what happened. I am going to try what Ronny said next time, if the runts are the same. This is her 3rd litter, the last one she had 7 and one was a runt, but did fine in the litter. There were just too many trampling on these little guys to keep them w/the mix.

Thanks again,
Jenn