Millie, our Idaho Pasture Pig had her first litter of 11 piglets last Sunday (4-21-24). Everything seemed to be going fine, until we came out Tuesday morning to find that about half of them had died. Almost all the others except two were extremely weak and seemed almost dead.
We were almost certain they weren't crushed because first of all that would be a ton of piglets to crush, and they weren't breathing the way crushed piglets usually do, in jerky gasps.
I suspected that Millie might not be making enough milk for them, since when some of us were out the night before they were being super noisy. And piglets aren't usually very loud unless they are hungry. So, we tried to milk Millie (same concept as milking a goat or cow), and she had nothing...
So, we warmed some goat milk and tried to bottle feed the ones that were still living. One of them perked back up after being fed, but the rest weren't doing good at all. We got some sugar and tried giving that to them to give them energy, but unfortunately, we were too late, all but two (a girl and a boy) died.
We took those two from Millie since she wasn't being very careful and kept stepping on them. The girl seemed to be doing fine after being fed but the boy was still not as active as he should have been. He died the next morning.
As of now, the girl is still doing well, I guess she must have either been stronger than the rest or got more food to start out with? We aren't sure, but we now have a bottle pig to add to all our other work... that's how it goes on a farm!
What to Do First
Whatever the reason is for having to bottle feed your piglets, if the mother is still alive, it's best to take them away from their her, as she may not be very careful of them if she is no longer feeding them and will probably try to take their food while you try to feed them.
Bring them somewhere close to the house (you will appreciate this for nighttime feeding) where they will be protected from the elements, predators, and where you can give them supplemental heat if needed.
If the piglets seem cold you should get them warm before trying to feed them. Cold piglets will stand hunched up, keep trying to pile up with each other, and may be shivering.
What and How to Feed
For the first 24 hours you want to get the piglets to drink as much colostrum as you can get them to. Pig colostrum is best, but since most people aren't going to have access to that, you can also use cow colostrum or a colostrum replacer.
There are piglet bottles available, but we are just using a lamb and kid bottle, which is working okay. You may have to use an eye dropper the first day to feed them. The concept for getting piglets to take a bottle is basically the same as with other animals. You just have to force the bottle into their mouths until they get the idea. Be careful with piglets as they do have very sharp teeth even as newborns!
After 24 hours you can transition to milk or formula. As with many orphan animals, goat milk is a great choice, especially if you have milk goats yourself. If you only have cow's milk you should add a pint of half and half and a raw egg to each quart of milk.
How Much and How Often to Feed
For the first 24 hours you really want to try to feed them whenever they want and give them as much as they want during the day. If they were born during the night, and you had to take them away that night you should feed them as much colostrum as they want about every 30 minutes. Hungry piglets are noisy, when they aren't hungry, they will make hardly any sound at all.
After the first day you can switch from colostrum to milk and feed them every two hours during the day and every 4-6 hours at night. If at any time they seem very hungry it's fine to feed them even if it hasn't been two hours.
At any point now you can try to get them to drink out of a dish, although from what we are seeing very young piglets have too strong of a sucking instinct, and they just try to suck on the edge of the dish. I would probably wait to try feeding them out of a dish until they are over a week old.
At two weeks you can stop feeding them at night and feed them four times a day, spacing the feedings as evenly apart as you can.
Then from 3-5 weeks you only need to feed them about three times a day and can start offering them grain (if they are pasture pigs, make sure they have access to
grass). You can wean them any time between five weeks and three months.
Housing
For the first two weeks piglets can't produce their own body heat so it is important that you provide them with an area heated to 90 degrees for those first two weeks.
You don't have to heat the whole area just a big enough place for all the piglets to be in. In fact, unless it is cold out all the time, it is important that they be able to get away from the heat if they get too hot.
It is also important that the piglets either have access to the ground or you put a scoop of dirt in their housing so they can get iron.
Well, hopefully this blog will help you raise healthy bottle piglets! We plan to keep ours and raise her up for pork, so we will be able to see if she grows any faster than the pure Kunes.