[Tweedle]

  short post but we have our new arivals! A month and a half early, one off our new gilts that was supposed to be 2 months pregnant gave birth some time this after noon. I went down to give them there evening feeding and there were 7 little piggys wandering around the stall talk about deep end I'm scrambling as it is 10pm here now and I thought i had another  6 weeks! yikes! ok back to the barn but i wanted to pass along the news!   

[Tweedle]

p.s. the 7th little piggy is now nursing from her mom she was not looking well at all and i didnt think she would make it. we are not out of the woods yet but it is a good sign. 

[doganjo]

Keep us posted, photos too if you can.  Hope all goes well with the new babies.  How was there such a mix up with  the dates?
Annie

[pigsatlesrues]

What a shock!  Keep them warm, the temperature is cold during the night.

Keep us posted.

Kate 

[SimpleLifeWife]

Not really sure how there could be such a mix-up with the dates either.  We were told that they had got pregnant in mid to late July.  We were also told that this was confirmed by a vet.  Those piggies were not early, they were ready to come now, and what we were told was definetly incorrect.  It is not so much a big deal now.  We just would of liked to of prepared better, and had we known, we would of been ready. 

On the upside, we have our six little babies.  (I say six because the seventh littlest pigger couldn't make it through the night.) We are now scrambling to get ready for the next litter that we now know could come anytime.  Fun stuff!!

Cheers!

Sarah (Tweedle's wife)

[Tweedle]

Ok I finally have some pictures! It was a long and eventful night last night as the little one didn’t make it thru the night despite our best efforts. It truly was a sad scene at 3 am last night as "Wilberina" as she was named let go. On the up side we have 6 healthy happy noisy little ones running around. We couldn’t ask for a better mother than Choc-Chip she has been great to her little ones. When she lies down she is very careful and sits first and then slowly rolls to her side, giving the little ones time to scramble. (Which, is contrary to everything I have read about them flopping over and crushing them) We also built a little make-shift heat box for them to lie in away from momma and still be warm. I spent several hours last night picking them up and putting them in it only to have them crawl back under momma, after a wile momma got up sniffed around the box pushed on it with her nose and then stared pushing the little ones into it. After she got them all rounded up into it she lay across the opening and drifted off to sleep.
Her sister LadyBug was very defensive of her sister  when we first went into the pen, to check on the new momma and her little ones and she was also very tender towards the little ones when the crawled over her or got lost and tried to nurse from her she gently pushes them back to momma. Last night couldn't have gone better if we planned it.
As far as the off timing in the dates, I am still waiting for a call back from the person that I purchased them from. I still would have taken them in either way but it would have been nice to be prepared....   

[Rosemary]

Ah, you would just have had more time to worry and get tense, and the outcome would probably have been the same. So well done you and the girls for half a job well done! Roll on Ladybug! Well, not literally roll on...

[doganjo]

What a sweet story, and such CUTE little piggies.   

[Tweedle]

And then there were 15!  Lady Bug gave birth yester day wile we were at work to a litter of 9! wow I was told that her momma had been birthing 5 per litter consistently  so thats what i was hoping for maybe 6 but she out shined her mother sister(who only had 7) and poped out 9 little ones. both of the new mommas are doing great and the piglets and all grunting and happy. I will post some pictures soon.  We now have a total  of 15 new little ones 10 girls 5 boys. 

[pigsatlesrues]

They are fab - congratulations!

Kate 

[Francis Bacon]

Oh Wow, So glad all has gone well for you guys, the pictures of Choc Chip & babies are really lovely.  Look forward to seeing Ladybug's new arrivals 

[Tweedle]

and now we have 12  we lost the 3 yesterday  1 runt and 2 that looked healthy, no idea why for the 2 of them..... is it normal to lose some youngins, or should i be trying to figure out what is going on.... ?

[Tweedle]

It was a horrible weekend here at Callender Farm. We have lost 8 little piglets of the 16 that were born last week. The first couple that we lost didn’t look very hardly when they were born and I was not surprised when they were lost. The other 6 that we lost all looked healthy and vigorous. Both of the mommas have gotten sick, not bad but still sick and they have been passing it on to there little ones then two night in a row we had power failure and lost the heater and heat lamps and the temp had dropped below freezing. I am very worried about the rest of them. I think that if the mommas had been on our farms for the full 6 weeks that we had planned for that they would have had more time to get accustomed to the farm and would have had time to build up antibodies to the local bugs and been able to pass them along to the babies. It has been a series of horrible events and we are doing everything we can to help them along. Any advice would be great as we are on our own no vet help as he closed up shop unexpectedly.   
 

[Hilarysmum]

Oh Tweedle!  I have just got back on line, started reading this posting with enthusiasm, and the picture was just lovely, now to hear your bad news.  please dont be too put off, these things happen to all of us, its sad that this has happened with your first lot. 

HM

[Rosemary]

So sorry to hear your bad news. Hope the mommas and the remaining piglets make a good recovery.