[clivemaz]

We have a large white crossed with a landrace sow who has just had her first litter.
When the first piglet was born she tried to attack it.
When the second was born she attacked it and killed it.
We managed to get a farrowing crate over her and then as the piglets were born let them suckle for as long as possible then put them under the heat lamp.
She had ten in total so are left with nine nice even piglets.
The sow lets you rub her belly, she will lie down for the piglets to feed, roll over a bit more so they can get to her bottom teats. She grunts to get her milk down but if a piglet goes near her head again she will attack it.
We have tried a muzzle to stop her bitting them which she lifts her head up for it to be put on no problem at all. She is a very loving pig, she loves a bit fuss and still does.
We are now having to go down every two hours approx and put the piglets with her to feed.
They were born early hours of Sunday morning and we still have the same problem.
Does anyone have any ideas or advice. It would be greatly appreciated.

[doganjo]

I don't know the answer but using dog psychology it seems to me that she has bonded to people rather than her own species.  If that happens with a dog we try to find a surrogate mother for the pups.
Sorry, you have such a problem, but welcome to the forum anyway, hope we'll hear more from you about the rest of your animals.
Annie

[HappyHippy]

First time mum's can be more prone to it - next time she should be better 

What you can do is either, give her 2 cans of sweetheart stout (guiness would do at a push) or get a shot of stresnil from your vet.
Both do the same thing - chill her out !
This should give her a chance to settle and get used to the piglets, it's bound to be a bit of a shock to her.
HTH & let us know how she gets on.
Karen 

[robert waddell]

some pigs are aggressive    since you are attached to her you will obviously want to try and persevere with her
the only real solution is get rid plain and simple  it just might be you she attacks you  some time
the next time she farrows try the stout/stresnil if that fails cull her and don't be tempted to pass her on to somebody else

[Fowgill Farm]

We had this last year and same pig is due any day now. Hard work but perservere with latching the piglets on if you can, we find it helps to have her favourite keeper at just behind her head stroking her and rubbing her nose and making a fuss whilst A N other usually OH latches on the piglets. A first litter can be stressful for a gilt and she may be brusised and sore (think woman having had a baby!!) so if you can get a shot of stresnil from the vet and a shot of painkiller(ketofen is good) the stresnil will chill her out and the ketofen will reduce any pain she has.  If you can't get to the vet the next best option is beer/guinness, 4 tins soak it into a sloppy mash with pignuts, make sure she's also done her business and let her out for a walk round and have a sniff at the piglets but watch her closely, hopefully she'll get used to them and will be a great mum.
HTH mandy 

[clivemaz]

Thanks for all the advise.

We have tried the beer route but she didn't change. We are still having to feed them every 2-3 hours. Hopefully give it another couple of weeks they will start to eat weaner pellets so we should be able to extend the period between feeds.

We shall put her back to the boar once more to give her another chance but if it happens again then it will be sausages I think. At least we would of tried.

[princesspiggy]

poor u, alot of hard work for u xx   

[clivemaz]

The sow wont lie for anymore than a minute now so just got an orphan lamb feeder, seems to be working a treat.

[princesspiggy]

well done!

[robert waddell]

sows do not let piglets suckle for long periods

[princesspiggy]

sows do not let piglets suckle for long periods

i was thinking that too, poor toto never got a look in sometimes.

[Sylvia]

sows do not let piglets suckle for long periods

I.m not surprised, they're teeth are like needles

[Blinkers]

Well done you, you're certainly doing everything possible to help the whole family out.     

[Sylvia]

I'm sure they'll do you proud

[Pel]

I read somewhere that a sow lets her milk down for about 5 minutes, but a piglet will stay attached for as long as the sow lets them.
A few years back when I worked with a herd of 12 sows, I found from one particular blood line all the gilts were aggressive first time around, normally to the piglets and sometimes to men (but fine with women), but by the 2nd time round had settled down quite a bit. In nearly all cases the gilts and the piglets were left together, could mean that half the litter was lost, and the rest were weaned at 6 weeks, but all the ones that lost any due to their mum skills seemed to have learnt the 2nd time round and kept nearly all.. was normal to loose one. They had litters of around 10-14. 
So hopefully your gilt will be better next time, but she might not be as you hasnt had chance to kill them off so to speak. You have to weigh up the costs for yourself and which is more financially viable over a long period.