A situation may arise when newborn piglets are left without mother’s milk: more of them are born than there are nipples in the uterus, when she loses milk or lacks it, when the uterus dies during prolonged labor. To save the suckers, they are transferred to feeding with cow’s milk or artificial colostrum. Colostrum is prepared according to the following recipe: for 1 liter of whole milk, add 30 ml of boiled water, 2 g of sugar, 1 chicken egg, 1 ml of a mixture of vitamins A and D in a ratio of 2: 1, 10 ml of a 1% ferrous sulfate solution, 1,01, 0,04 g of biomycin or 2 g of biovitin, 2,5-1 amino-peptide. Another recipe: 15 g of fish oil, 10 g of table salt, 25 g of sugar, 4 eggs are added to 37 liter of whole milk. Colostrum is fed at a temperature of 39-XNUMX Β°C.
For feeding piglets with milk or artificial colostrum, an easy-to-make device can be recommended. A piece of metal pipe 1,5 m long and 60-80 mm in diameter is cut off. Holes are drilled along its length every 10 cm, to which tubes of smaller diameter 15-20 cm long are welded perpendicularly. Nipples are put on the ends of these tubes, a row of 13-14 nipples is obtained. Milk is fed into a horizontal pipe from a plastic or polyethylene container fixed to the pipe with an adapter. This whole structure is installed on legs so that the horizontal tubes with nipples put on them are at a height of 10-12 cm from the floor.
Piglets are accustomed to an artificial nurse for 1-2 days, placing each one on a specific nipple. They are fed at least 5 times a day. After each feeding, the structure is cleaned and washed with hot water. You can use it for 1,5-2 months. It should be of particular interest to pig breeders who use weaning piglets before 2 months of age.
With the help of a wet nurse, various medicinal infusions, acidophilus, liquid yeast and other liquid feeds and additives can be given to piglets.
A pig lover has designed a self-feeder for piglets, which every hour makes sounds like the grunting of a sow calling her piglets to feed. The cessation of grunting is a break in feeding. The feeder is equipped with a device for heating milk, in front it is covered with soft rubber, imitating the udder of a sow.
Weaning piglets from sows
Piglets are traditionally weaned at 60 days of age. By this time, the formation and secretion of milk in the mammary gland of the sow is sharply reduced, the piglets are accustomed to eating top dressing and prepared for independent existence.
Amateur pig farmers can be recommended several methods of weaning.
From plentiful milk queens, in which milk production continues even after 60 days of the suckling period, piglets are taken away gradually – within 4-5 days, reducing the number of sucklings daily. In the first two days after the start of weaning, piglets are allowed to the uterus 4-5 times, the next two days – 2 times a day and on the last day – 1 time. During these days, the sow “dries out” the udder, and the piglets make up for the lack of mother’s milk with a large consumption of top dressing. With this method of weaning, mastitis of the udder is excluded from the queens.
You can apply fractional weaning. First, the largest, strongest, most energetic piglets are taken away and transferred to independent feeding, and those that are weaker are left under the uterus for another 10-15 days. This is useful for leveling the litter, but care must be taken to ensure that all the nipples are sucked from the uterus, otherwise inflammation of the udder may occur. With this weaning, sows are used less intensively and produce fewer offspring.
On small farms or backyards with several sows, the “prefabricated nest” method is used to obtain piglets. After weaning, stunted piglets are combined into one nest and placed with a calm, plentifully milky sow, identified during the lactation period. She feeds piglets for 2-3 weeks, during which time they quickly recover and almost catch up with their peers in live weight.
The difficulty of applying the method lies in the fact that at the right time there may not be such a sow. Then the “prefabricated nest” is transferred to feeding with artificial colostrum, Milk replacer, soy or oat milk.
