The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: ggd on April 02, 2010, 12:34:12 pm
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We have been fatting pigs for a few years and have now taken the plunge and bought an in pig gilt :). All are pigs are kept in arks and she has been sharing with two other gilts for the last 2 months.
We hope she is going to farrow in the next two weeks (the breeder could not be sure when she was covered), so I want to make sure we are fully geared up to the new arrivals (hopefully). She certainly grown and her teets are allot more evident than her non pregnant companions. We are thinking of bringing her into a warm dry stable with heat lamp until the birth, what would others recomend? :-\
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Stable sounds good.
I would certainly separate her from the other pigs, even if only in another arc and subdivide the paddock to give her the peace she will certainly require when giving birth and feeding. Its not happened to us, but I have heard of sows stealing the piglets. Either way its very hard to separate mum from babies at weaning without the attentions of 2 more largish pigs attempting to "rescue" the piglets.
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I agree with the above. In the last 2 weeks you should move away from the other pigs so she does not get knocked around at feeding also moving her onto flat/less turned soil or ground. This is so she is not over doing it going over lumps and bumps, which can result in loss of some or all piglets.
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We have seperated her today - into a roomy stable with access to a heat lamp, but I still no idea how long before she farrows (if she does) what symptoms should we look out for?
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try her teets for milk, if milk is there it could only be 12 hours or so before piglets arrive!!!
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If she's got her bedding you'll see her making a nest in preparation for the event usually on the day she has them .She will also get milky anything from a few days before up to 12-24 hrs before she's due;the nearer she gets the easier it is to express the milk.Her underline usaully drops down quite markedly and quite often they can have a change in temperment .
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Thanks for the advice :) - I have been checking her teets this week but there is certainly nothing there yet. With our goats their udders usually grow greatly in the last few days before kidding and if pigs are similar she does not look due yet. It could be another 3 or 4 weeks yet, will she be OK on her own for along period? She has looks happy through today and has rearranged her stable to her liking.
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Can she hear /see other pigs if so she should be happy enough if not she may get a little forlorn and a little grumpy but when the little ones arrive she'll be too busy to worry about other pigs except her own. If she hasn't got pig company try and make sure she gets plenty of human company at different times during the day to make life a little more interesting for her.
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The back end opens and becomes red, sometimes as much as a week before. Although this may not be the case with every gilt/sow.
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Careful with the heat lamp as shes on her own if she can get to it there may be a chance that she will try biting it!! which could be serious.
Also I put a radio in the barn with any of my sows if their farrowing alone! it soothes them.