Little help please

[Mouse14]

I feel like maybe her teats are pulling on her making her look thinner. I just fed her again.

 

[babsbag]

I would feed her more, lactation is probably harder on them than being pregnant. Does she get any garden scraps? My big butcher pigs were eating scraps from the school lunch room and boy were they eating like pigs This time of year maybe you can get garden scraps from friends and neighbors, or a local produce stand. Mine were lucky, the had goat's milk too, the older the milk the better.

 

[Mouse14]

I can try to get some thanks. I'll up her feed to pregnancy amount. I usually have a head of romaine lettuce I give them, and carrots but haven't bought produce in a few weeks

 

[babsbag]

Mine also got eggs. I have chickens and lots of eggs so I would hard boil them and them just smash them, fed shell and all and they loved them.

 

[Mouse14]

Oh I didn't know they could eat shells! I'll definitely be doing that since eggs are full of goodness

 

[Latestarter]

Some folks don't even bother smashing them... just give them the whole boiled egg (and watch the first time as they try to figure it out ) After the first time, I imagine it's pretty much "smoosh" then swallow.

 

[babsbag]

But these pigs are little and we don't want them to choke on them, but yeah, for big pigs probably no smashing required.

 

[Mouse14]

Oh yeah I'd be giving it to her for now. Is it normal for a momma to be super stingy with food? One of her babies got inches from the pan in exploration and she started eating faster and trying to finish it before he got a bite :/ what I've been giving her makes her belly big after eating so I think I'm feeding her a perfect amount right now. How will the babies learn to eat the grain if she won't let them near it? I have given them mushy feed while she was eating but she eats so fast, by the time they start getting into it good she's done

 

[misfitmorgan]

We always feed pigs hay so they can munch if they are hungry. For our piglets we leave a pan of pig & sow out for them 24/7 in a creep feeder area. I have never really seen momma pigs sharing from a pan with their piglets, the closest would be letting them root around outside with her.

i would say she for sure looks skinny, pigs during lactation are almost impossible to put weight on once it is lost because their body demands so much to make milk. From what i gather that Mazuri pig feed is only suppose to be 50-60% of their daily intake of feed. The other 40-50% of her feed should be hay, grass,forage,fruits,veggies, table scraps, milk, eggs, basically anything but meat/bones.

So for example if she weighs 50lbs she would need 0.75-1.5lbs of Mazuri per day plus 0.75-1.5lbs of other food stuff. 0.75-1.5lbs is roughly 1 1/2C to 2 3/4C so total per day she should get 3 - 5 1/2C if she weighed 50lbs.

If you have a tape measure you can figure out her weight the problem atm is she is skinny firstly so her weight to feed will be off and she is lactating so weight gain is gonna be hard. I would definitely figure up weight then figure out her feed amount per day and feed her that plus slightly more.

Forgot to mention you can also free choice feed pigs....with her being skinny and the piglets being there and needing to get used to food you can free choice feed but definitely add hay or some other reasonable amount of forage for them to the diet.

 

[Mouse14]

I upped her feed to about 4c a day. She's only roughly 30 lbs prebaby. After she eats she has a good belly. I've been feeding her eggs, watermelon rinds, I've been bringing grass in from outside as well.