The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: grumpsgarden on October 12, 2011, 10:39:10 am
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we where giving a 5 day old piglet (he is now 2 weeks old) doing great , but he wont eat any food just his bottle how do i get him to start laping and taking solids , we have hand reared 5 3 week old pigglets but they where feed by tray and on solids before we got them also they are doing great and be ready to go december/january of track sorry, i have tried leaving milk in a tray for him but he just tips it and ive tryed food as well but he not intrested in it , he is kept in doors at the moment so we can keep him warm thank you
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Hi grumps
never handreared a piglet before but in the past for non thriving piglets we have mushed up pig nuts in milk and fed with a spoon, soon after they generally get the idea and a taste for it. Make it solid enough that they can't tip it out and leave it with them, curiosity normally gets the better of them.
HTh
Mandy :pig:
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we where giving a 5 day old piglet (he is now 2 weeks old) doing great , but he wont eat any food just his bottle how do i get him to start laping and taking solids , we have hand reared 5 3 week old pigglets but they where feed by tray and on solids before we got them also they are doing great and be ready to go december/january of track sorry, i have tried leaving milk in a tray for him but he just tips it and ive tryed food as well but he not intrested in it , he is kept in doors at the moment so we can keep him warm thank you
I have used a bowl with Divetalac milk which is lactose free..... they grow really well on it. there are teats made in NZ that you can stick to a pie plate and put on heavy weight on the bottom. let the piglets in and they will suck the milk up through these teats makeing less of a mess. Have seen it only in photographs. If I come across the name I will add it later.
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thank you , i have left him a tray of pig food crushed and mixed with his milk , he tried pushing it out of his cage then just tiped it and made a racket for his bottle think weve got a very spoilt piggie , just dont help me with the night feeding oh well at leaset my daughter does it over the weekend :pig:
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we had the same problem with our Miss Piggy, hand reared her from 3 days old. Now 11 weeks old and still is around the house with our dog! We mixed weetabix, porridge etc with the milk and just perservered. She did not like it and pushed it over so many times but in the end was too hungry too refuse! then softened pellets with milk, then softened with water and now she will eat anything! Good luck :pig:
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We've raised quite a few i wouldn't worry yet ours generally didn't show any interest in solids until at least 3 weeks old . How much milk are they getting and how many feeds? By 2 weeks we would have them on a late night feed ie our bed time and an early morning feed with no night feed we would leave them with water and some feed just in case.
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agree, ours was much later to start solids than her brothers and sisters but she did manage through the night by a couple of weeks old :wave:
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he is fed every 3 hours with as much milk as he wants , he wont lap so leaves the water untouched or tiped all over his cage , his last feed was at 3 then again at 7 as i was late up he hadnt touched water or food which i had left for him , i will keep trying he is growing well :pig:
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I would say that if he's growing you must be getting something right :thumbsup:
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ive been going on the size of the 3 week olds we got and he is now bigger then they where and he is only just 2 weeks olds , also he has over doubled the size he was when he arrived , he was on 2 hour feeding but i find that i couldnt keep that up any more , the kids where complaing they had to cook there own tea and i was naping when they got home from school :wave:
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HI Grumps, I don't mean to sound like a Midwife but you need to start letting him go through the night controlled crying for humans :) as you say he is eating well but just needs to be left a little, I had 7 by hand as my sow died 2 days after delivery sadly we lost 5 but the 2 strongest ones are now nearly 4 months old they were in a shed with heat lamp and a lamb suckling device so luckily there was always plenty of milk for them and they sort of weaned themselves, some of my pigs had escaped there pens and raided the shed they were in because there was food in it, so the piglets started eating the left over early grower pellets once the milk wasn't enough. ::)
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we're hand rearing two kune piglets.
they took a while to show interest in solid food, even made up with milk. they began to nibble apple, so would only get it buried under pig food to encourage them!
They now have the milk watered down (bottled as wont lap) and eat plenty of food.
just this last week are they sleeping away from us - no night feeds ;D
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hi , he goes all night now thank god , he still wont eat any hard food or drink from a dish whish i could have him out but the house is the warmest place for just one piglet and my other pigs are just too old for him to go in with them , i now leave food and water in with him but he just dips it out so always in need of a dry bed , he is babyed lots by my daughter and he follows her around like a puppy :pig:
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hi , he goes all night now thank god , he still wont eat any hard food or drink from a dish whish i could have him out but the house is the warmest place for just one piglet and my other pigs are just too old for him to go in with them , i now leave food and water in with him but he just dips it out so always in need of a dry bed , he is babyed lots by my daughter and he follows her around like a puppy :pig:
Well now comes the hard part...... offer the piglet a bowl and if he does not drink it take it away, Come back in an hour and see what happens. A piglet wont starve one night without tucker. If Mum goes off looking for food she may stay out one night and come home the next day. the only think wrong with the piglets will be that they are hungry...... the piglet just might take to the bowl...... with a little help from you..... but dont offer the bottle.
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hi , he goes all night now thank god , he still wont eat any hard food or drink from a dish whish i could have him out but the house is the warmest place for just one piglet and my other pigs are just too old for him to go in with them , i now leave food and water in with him but he just dips it out so always in need of a dry bed , he is babyed lots by my daughter and he follows her around like a puppy :pig:
Forgive me but I haven't read all the threads, so if someone has said it then ignore me(you do any way, but...).
Mix the milk with the creep, but initial make it very watery and gradually make it thicker.
In this way he will eat it eventually make him eat creep without him realising it. :wave:
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thank you for your help piglet is now outside in a pen doing realy well with his creep soaked in his milk as soon as we put him into a bigger area he started to drink out of his tray , now realy need a nother pig his age to give him somecompany as my other pigs are just too old for him :-\