The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: heyhay1984 on August 30, 2015, 06:43:26 pm
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Overheard a conversation the other day and am interested to hear what you all think of this- is it the case that piglets can be born with prick ears and, as they mature, end up with lop ears?
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Not sure about that, would have to google it..... My large blacks were born with floppy ears, gorgeous they looked. :)
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If they are born with small/light ears then the cartlidge can hold them up but if the ear gets too big/heavyt it can only flop, so I'd say it could happen
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I wouldn't call them "pricked" like a Hampshire for instance but I have seen lop eared piglets that have ears that are not fully down and they do come down with time. I have also known ones whose ears are curled back and up and they never come down properly.
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Must admit I've had far more lop eared wearers than pricked but they all definitely stayed as they were, but they were all sent off as porkers so never got chance to see the long term view and my piggy mentor only has lop-eared breeding stock too!
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All my lop eared piglets seem to be born with pricked ears - it always looks as though it's from where they've been pinned back while in the sac - but then they usually flop within a day or two. There was a runt in my last litter whose ears didn't flop for a couple of weeks though and I assume it was because of the small size - it looked quite strange to have a prick eared GOS!
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Our GOS occasionally have prick ears for a few days but they always flop in the end.