The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: dixie on September 17, 2009, 11:17:15 am
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My litter of 12 are a week old tommorrow, the runt is tiny he feeds but doesnt stay latched on, he drops off then gets back on again but is feeding, he runs around but takes himself off to the heatlamp for a nap whilst the others are playing, should I supplement him at all or leave him be?
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Knowing nothing about pigs but quite a lot about dogs my answer would be - depends what you are going to do with him.
If he is small he's going to pass that on if bred from. So don't breed from him, but that's obvious.
If he is destined for the freezer then he will need to be helped to get to a reasonable size and although he probably won't make the same size as the others, it'll still be worthwhile.
If he could just be someone's pet then I'd still help him because that will keep his health level good as well.
Or you could just cull him now and save yourself any hassle.
It's up to you but if it was me I would try to supplement him as he's here anyway and is obviously fighting but not quite hard enough. He may not need your help for long.
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If it was me and he was going to the freezer, or pet, I would not cull as he doesn't seem to be suffering. However, I wouldn't spend a fortune on him either. How much help I gave therefore would depend on what I had to hand and whether I had the time to spare - I wouldn't begrudge him a bag of formula though!
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Thanks for the replies, no he's not to be bred from he's destined for the freezer, and I would only consider culling him if he was poorly, just wondered what folk do that breed regularly, if they help the runt at all?
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Generally speaking if he's feeding and seems active and healthy we let them get on with it. once they start on solids/rations at around 3 weeks old it's amazing how well they usually catch up with their larger siblings.just keep a wee eye on him. if we ever have to feed a piglet we use lamb powdered milk and have also found they like very sloppy cereals such as porridge or weetabix as they get a little bigger and the bottle is not always filling enough.
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Our last two litters from different sows have both had a distinct runts born alot smaller than there litter mates and one was so skinny i was convinced it would be squashed withing hours!
How wrong i was both have survived one is now 13 weeks and the other is 4 weeks and you would never know they were the runts!
Just keep the sow well fed and nature will do the rest!
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Hi thanks for the replies, I decided that as he was so thin and tiny I would help! I only have lamb teats but he's fine with that, and just takes about 10-20ml of faramate 4 times a day, so just a little 'top up', he comes to me now rather than me catching him! mum doesnt seem to mind at all, so I'm glad I intervened. Whether or not I'll need to continue will depend on how he grows! in just 24 hours he now has a 'covering' and is a little plumper ;D
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Great news! Well worth doing.
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One day when I learn to post photos, indeed to get them from the camera to the computer - I will post a picture of my "little" runt.