Healthy and well-groomed piglets, if the farmer observes all the rules of keeping and feeding, by the age of six months, gain weight – 100 kilograms. But not always everything goes smoothly, sometimes piglets do not grow – they lag behind in development, their body weight slowly increases. It is important to identify the reasons for the lag in growth of young animals in time, because it depends on how profitable farming will be.
Piglets lag behind in development
Causes
Weight gain in young animals depends on appetite, and many factors influence it – health pathologies, living conditions and even the psychological state of pigs, since these animals do not tolerate stress well. The main reasons why piglets do not grow well include:
- Lack of vitamins.
- Helminths.
- Anemia.
- Pellagra.
- Incorrect food.
- Poor living conditions and care.
Let’s look at each of the reasons separately to understand how to accelerate growth and weight gain in piglets.
Lack of vitamins
If the body of a pig lacks vitamins or microelements, it weakens, lags behind in development, and there is a lack of weight. Vitamin D deficiency has a special effect on the appetite and general condition of young animals. Such vitamin deficiency occurs in piglets that rarely walk. If the problem is not solved in time, rickets can develop, in which bone tissue is deformed. Fish oil will help fill the lack of vitamin D, it is introduced into the diet of pigs. Ultraviolet is also necessary – piglets need to walk in the sun. In winter, you can solve the problem of lack of ultraviolet radiation with the help of a special lamp, fixing it in a pigsty.
Attention! To quickly resolve the problem, contact your veterinarian. He will prescribe injections that help to establish phosphorus-calcium metabolism.
The lack of retinol (vitamin A) also adversely affects the development and growth of piglets. If pigs have dry skin, digestion is disturbed and there are problems with the respiratory system, such symptoms indicate beriberi A. To help piglets, enrich their diet with carrots, pumpkin, sprouted grains.
Carrot
The lack of vitamins belonging to group B is no less dangerous for young animals. It is manifested by growth retardation and disorders of the cardiovascular system. To solve the problem, you need to include more legumes, bran, introduce yeast, fish and flax meal into the diet of piglets.
Helminths
Various types of helminthiases are common in pigs. If the organism of animals is infected with parasitic worms – nematodes, roundworms or protozoa, there is exhaustion, loss of appetite, intoxication. Worms take away most of the nutrients from their owner, so the animal simply cannot gain weight normally. It is easy to identify the problem if you take pig excrement to the laboratory for analysis. If worm eggs are found, treatment with antiparasitic drugs will be prescribed. Deworming should also be carried out for prevention about 2 times a year. As soon as the body of a sick piglet is cleansed of parasites and toxic substances, appetite improves, the pig will begin to gain weight.
Anemia
Piglets suffer from anemia if they are not pierced with iron preparations at an early age. In nature, wild pigs get this element from the soil. However, piglets living in a pigsty do not have the opportunity to make up for the lack of iron in this way. The sow provides newborn individuals with only one sixth of this substance.
With its deficiency in the body, hemoglobin decreases, the blood is poorly saturated with oxygen, and all processes slow down. Hence the loss of appetite, and underweight and developmental delay. In severe cases, piglets can die from anemia.. To prevent this from happening, starting from the 5th day after birth, they need to inject iron-containing preparations:
Ferranimal
- Ferranimal.
- Ferroglucin.
- Suiferrovit (contains, in addition to iron, B vitamins).
Pellagra
This disease is also associated with beriberi, it develops due to a lack of certain B vitamins, proteins and acids – tryptophan and nicotinamide. The lack of these substances leads to significant changes in the course of metabolic processes in the animal body. Consider the symptoms of pellagra:
- The skin flakes, swells, turns red, a rash appears.
- Later, the pustules burst, and instead of them, moist ulcerations form on the skin.
- As the disease progresses, the skin becomes covered with scabs and cracks.
- If the rash has spread into the oral cavity, saliva is abundantly separated.
- Piglets eat poorly, do not gain weight.
- Constipation is replaced by diarrhea with mucus.
Attention! Pellagra is a dangerous disease, which often results in the death of an animal.
Treatment of pellagra is reduced to replenishment of missing substances in the body. The veterinarian prescribes the necessary drugs in the form of injections, since you need to act quickly. In parallel with drug treatment, the farmer needs to work on improving the quality of the diet of pigs.
Improper diet
Another reason why piglets do not grow is malnutrition. As we found out, this aspect is very important for the prevention of various types of beriberi. The diet should contain all the vitamins and substances necessary for a growing body. However, farmers who have extensive experience in raising pigs notice that piglets do not gain weight not only because of the poor diet. Often they refuse to eat simply because they don’t like the food.
Piglets nutrition
It is important to monitor not only the quality of the diet, but also its taste component.. It is necessary to stimulate the appetite of animals with the help of flavoring additives:
- Salts.
- Mustard.
- Sahara.
- lactic acid.
- Essential oils.
In order for the piglets to eat the food that they are offered with pleasure, you need to grind it, boil the cereals, fry the grain before grinding it into flour. In order not to provoke digestive problems, the food is given warm, because the intestines of piglets are very delicate. It is important to monitor the quality of the feed, it is unacceptable to offer sour foods, moldy grain to pigs in order to avoid poisoning.
Poor living conditions and care
The conditions in which piglets are kept affect their health and development. If the pigsty is damp and cold, you should not count on a rapid increase in body weight of young animals. The room must be warm. The minimum temperature in the pigsty is 18-19 degrees. If the thermometer drops below, piglets spend most of the energy on heating their own bodies, and almost none of it remains for growth.
Humidity also plays an important role. The normal value is 50-70%. With increased levels of humidity, piglets get sick, then you can forget about a good weight gain. Ventilation is another aspect worth paying attention to. If the room is poorly ventilated, gases accumulate in it – ammonia, hydrogen sulfide. Their increased concentration leads to various diseases of pigs and lack of appetite.
Due to poor living conditions and poor-quality care, animals are constantly under stress. For young animals, it even matters whether they can move freely and play.
It is important for young people to move freely
Crowding, lack of lighting, rearrangement of animals, transportation and other factors cause stress in animals, due to which they lose their appetite. That’s why piglets don’t grow up if they’re well-nourished and don’t have birth defects or diseases.
Pathologies
Congenital pathologies often cause underweight. Animals lag behind in development if:
- They have the wrong bite.
- They were born as a result of related mating.
Incorrect bite does not allow piglets to chew food normally, they prefer liquid feed, which means they will not be able to fully eat and grow. It is important to check the position of the teeth in pigs at the time of purchase or after birth. For this, the piglet is fixed with hands, opening its lips. If the upper and lower teeth are located in the same line, this is considered the norm. In case of malocclusion, the upper teeth are located deeper than the lower ones by 5 or more millimeters..
Piglets born from related mating have various health pathologies, they grow slowly. It is worth buying pigs from trusted sellers or in a nursery.
Attention! When buying several piglets, give preference to individuals from the same litter. Animals taken from different sows usually fight to win food from the feeder. At the same time, the one who is stronger will gain weight and grow well.
The growth and good weight gain of young animals depends on the state of health of individuals, the conditions of detention, the quality of care and nutrition. If animals are slowly gaining body weight, their appetite is reduced, the reasons should be looked for. The lack of vitamins in the body needs to be urgently replenished, work to improve the diet, create comfortable conditions for piglets in the pigsty, and, if necessary, deworm.
