[Tamsaddle]

My two Tamworth babies are now 18 days old and growing well at 6.3 and 5.9 kg today, having weighed 1.4 and 1.1 kg on Day 3.    But how much, when and what to feed them now has me floundering around in the dark making random guesses at this or that.

I started off with just SMA Multimilk at 2 hour intervals in the day, 3 hour intervals at night, about 250 ml each per feed.    Over the days as they seemed to get hungrier and hungrier, I have been filling out the milk with Ready Brek porridge and various baby cereals to make a gloopy gruel, and in the last few days soaked piglet creep feed added too, and using about 450 ml milk each per feed at 3 hour intervals in the day, 4 hour intervals at night, although quite a lot of this gets spilt as they fight over the same bowl even though two bowls are provided.   They always seem to be starving and lap everything up in just a few minutes, and they are doing normal poos and weeing.   They also have a bowl of water, and a tiny bowl of dry creep nuts which are of no interest at all.   Meanwhile next door the ten saddleback piglets, 2 days younger, are also putting on masses of weight being fed naturally by their mum on milk only at 45 minute intervals, and both sets of piglets look as if they are about the same in terms of size and length.

What I should really like to know is:
1)  Can you overfeed a hand reared piglet, or should they be fed as much as they want to eat at this stage?   I read somewhere ages ago that they put on weight in the order frame, flesh, fat, but I don't know how that relates to what I am giving mine, too much, too little, or the wrong stuff.
2)  Is it cruel and/or bad for their digestive systems to feed them at much bigger intervals of time than what happens naturally with a lactating sow (45 - 60 minutes)?    When would it be safe to increase the interval between feeds even more than the max 4 hours at night they have to wait now - I am longing to get a full night's sleep again, but their needs must come first.
3)  Should I try and encourage them to eat more creep pellets, rather than spoiling them with the porridgey cereals they obviously prefer right now.
4)  When and if they start eating more of the creep pellets, should I keep the milk component high all the way through to 7 or 8 weeks like naturally fed piglets?

If anyone could shed any light on any of the above, or any other info, I'd love to hear from you - Tamsaddle

[little blue]

What I should really like to know is:
1)  Can you overfeed a hand reared piglet, or should they be fed as much as they want to eat at this stage?   I read somewhere ages ago that they put on weight in the order frame, flesh, fat, but I don't know how that relates to what I am giving mine, too much, too little, or the wrong stuff.
2)  Is it cruel and/or bad for their digestive systems to feed them at much bigger intervals of time than what happens naturally with a lactating sow (45 - 60 minutes)?    When would it be safe to increase the interval between feeds even more than the max 4 hours at night they have to wait now - I am longing to get a full night's sleep again, but their needs must come first.
3)  Should I try and encourage them to eat more creep pellets, rather than spoiling them with the porridgey cereals they obviously prefer right now.
4)  When and if they start eating more of the creep pellets, should I keep the milk component high all the way through to 7 or 8 weeks like naturally fed piglets?

If anyone could shed any light on any of the above, or any other info, I'd love to hear from you - Tamsaddle

Hi Tamsaddle, firstly, well done on getting your little ones this far 
We hand reared two kune kunes last year, so my experience is somewhat limited but here goes...

1) probably not! but it is possible to spoilt them!
they have obviously got some catching up to do, so feed if they want it (but keep an eye on their general size & weight)

2)within reason, it shouldn't do them any harm.
We had our two sleeping in their cage next to us. At first, we had to wake them to feed, then feed on demand, then reduced night feeds by ignoring them, and feeding less often. Not easy, but it worked after a fashion!

3) Are you still feeding "full strength" milk? Try watering it down, so they aren't feeling so full & this may encourage them to eat more.
I must say, our two were b*ggers to start on proper food, all the other piglets were nibbling at mum's food at a couple of days! The hand reared ones (Lucky & Mogwai) refused creep feed but eventually would eat apples and grapes. They also liked the porridgey type concoctions, so if yours aren't keen, don't push too hard.. they'll eat it when they're ready.

4) Yes!
If they stay small / lower weight than their siblings, then continue as long as you can to keep them strong.
Soak the pellets, or try mash made with milk, and if they like porridge then give it them!

Try them with fruit, it might tempt them more than harder feed.
Just a little obviously  and watch how it affects them

best of luck
(Photos?!)

[robert waddell]

they are about normal weight for there age        some of the time suckling mum is just like a child with a dummy
they will eat more if they have less milk   you could try soaking the pellets in there milk     the normal piglets get the sow rolls and soften them up to digest them

[Fowgill Farm]

make the 'porridge' with their creep feed instead of the human stuff, initially make it very sloppy and gradually use less milk, naturally they would start to eat creep at about 14days old.
Mandy

[Tamsaddle]

Thanks for your ideas.   Discovered today when I bought Faramate sow milk instead of SMA that I am feeding them far too much full strength milk - up to 3.5 litres each per day when the maximum should be 2 litres.   So I am starting to dilute the milk with extra water as from today, and increase the proportion of creep pellet porridge to oaty baby porridge.    Just wish they would get the idea of eating the dry pellets too.   The fruit was a very good idea and they seem to like that.    Still not sure about when to reduce/stop night feeds, but am going to change to a single night feed instead of two on Friday when they will be 3 weeks old, and hope they don't go mental with hunger.   Poor things having to grow up so fast, just so their food provider (me) can get a bit more sleep.   

[little blue]

Its like weaning kids (human ones I mean!) ... move them on stage by stage, but keep it similar. If they'll eat sloppy porridge then give it them, they probably can't manage the hard pellets just yet.

I prefer feeding mash anyway, its much more versatile & goes further.

Feed them more watery bottles in the day then a strong one at "bedtime" so they are fuller over night.
Ditto with the food.

They'll probably make a fuss ... but at three weeks old they won't starve to death in one night, so don't give in!