Bottle Feeding Piglets

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ShowPigGirl2008
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Bottle Feeding Piglets

Post by ShowPigGirl2008 » Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:52 pm

What substitutes can you give to a piglet if milk replacer is unavailable. It's the runt and she's nursing, but I'd like to feed her more to get her more lively for a few days and the replacer isn't here yet. She makes me nervous. Can you get some kind of normal milk from the store?

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Post by MarkFrankpigs » Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:17 pm

in your situation depend on the age of the baby pigs, I would attach her to a front tit. Generally the front tits have the best milk. I would not bottle feed the runt I would bottle feed some of the bigger pigs so they aren't as hungry, ONLY if there is a shortage of tits on the sow. Some times it can be very hard to keep runts alive depending on there size. Good luck
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Post by ringleader » Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:31 pm

I wouldn't recomend you making this the runts main source of milk, but it will it more lively and more likely to nurse. You take a plastic syringe and get about 2 or 3 cc's of BRANDY then squirt it into their mouths then when they get done with that just give it about 1 cc of HONEY. An older gentlemen who raised pigs back in the day told me about this. I didn't believe him at first but after about 20 minutes the runt was on the first tit and pushing the other, bigger pigs to the back. Just keep a close eye on the pig after giving it that.
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Post by MarkFrankpigs » Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:47 pm

be very slow with the syringe, its not like giving a shot. Release the brandy/honey very very very slow or u can easily kill the big.
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Post by drw » Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:21 pm

Here's a recipe for homemade pig milk replacer:
1 pint whole milk
1/2 cup half and half
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 egg
Mix well and heat just till warm in the microwave. Don't overdo it or you'll cook the egg. Heating is less important once they're used to it.
We usually provide supplemental milk in a shallow, straight-sided pan. A round cake pan works great. Dip the pig's nose in the replacer; if they're hungry, they'll quickly learn to drink from the pan.
Places like WalMart sell small bags of Unimilk (sp?) replacer in their pet sections. This milk is supposed to work on many species. You might also ask your local feed store if they can order Land O Lakes or similar replacer.
We've used the homemade milk recipe above, and it works. It is pricey and a bother to prepare, however.
We have also raised pigs on non-medicated calf milk replacer. The Reserve Champion at our 2009 State Fair was an orphan, raised on the non-medicated replacer. Did just fine.

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Post by MarkFrankpigs » Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:36 pm

I just learned the hard way......get pig only replacer
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Post by Good_Livin » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:55 am

If you have access to goats milk, that is a great option. We recently bottle fed a runt and had success with goats milk. Our source was 4-H dairy goat kids, sometimes you won't realize who milks goats until you ask around. Most of the time they have plenty to get rid of. We made a small donation to their project for their help.

This was our first time to bottle feed a runt. I learned we probably won't do it again. Other than to help keep them established on the sow, and let mother nature work. But that is because it's fresh in our minds, a lot of work and a PITA. It's all about the time you have.

A question though, what do you folks use for replacement teets, if you were to lose a sow post farrowing?? I have seen a few buckets with multiple nipples. Any thoughts??

Thanks and good luck
Thanks,
Kevin

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Post by Darin » Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:04 pm

They don't need replacement teats, they will drink. You just need a good-quality pig milk replacer. If you get the colostrum into them, that is all they need and they can grow faster on good milk replacer than they can on the sow. It just costs a lot more!

If we need to supplement any litters, we use a stainless-steel round feeder (designed for dry feed) that hooks to the wire flooring. It's just like a little round dish. You can put a little more than a quart of milk replacer in them at once. The piglets will circle around it and drink easily. After they reach 10 days of age we can begin adding some starter pellets in the feeder, some with the milk and some after the milk is gone. This gets them started eating solid feed and eventually we transition them completely off of the milk replacer.
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Post by XHOG » Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:10 pm

Darin,

thats exactly what we do with the starter pellets and mash it up and make it even smaller than its original size. Kind of makes a paste.

Its amazing how fast they take to it and start eating starter pellets only. Usually within two weeks they are off the milk replacer.

Works great, I try to get them off that milk replacer as soon as possible. $$$$$$$$$

XHOG

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Post by Good_Livin » Thu Jan 14, 2010 10:31 am

Darin,
thanks for the info on the milking dish. that makes more sense and must be easier than the maintance of a bucket with teets.
Thanks,
Kevin

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Post by Darin » Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:36 pm

Here's a link to the feeders we use:

http://www.qcsupply.com/qcsupply/browse ... age=search
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Post by Ericka » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:07 pm

I recently had 13 babies nursing on 12 nipples and at 6 days old the sharing was not working. Both of them started to not gain and starve so my 1st thing was to start searching for goat milk. However, all the goats around here had already dried up so I tried unimilk. Both babies left the nipple and just wanted it from the pan but it made them really sick to their stomach and they got the runs (1 more that the other) One of them was only 2 1/2 pounds at 2 weeks old. He was a bag of bones so I decided to buy goat milk at the grocery store while I searched for goat milk. The runs went right away and they both started gaining. I did finally find some frozen milk from our goat project leader and got them doing well enough to wean. They are now 2 months old and 50 #. I swear by goats milk. I normally keep goat colostrum frozen just in case. I also recently froze some pig colostrum since my gilt only had 7 and have plenty to go around. That is just my 2 cents worth. Also alot of people swear by Birthrite. I may get some of that to keep on hand also since I cleaned everybody's freezer out and I have a gilt that looks like she is going to have alot.

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Re: Bottle Feeding Piglets

Post by BallardFamilyFarms » Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:22 am

How do you get them to drink out of the pan? Mine cant seem to figure it out and they don't suck my fingers like a calf :)

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Re: Bottle Feeding Piglets

Post by porkin » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:44 am

BallardFamilyFarms wrote:How do you get them to drink out of the pan? Mine cant seem to figure it out and they don't suck my fingers like a calf :)
Shove their nose in it.

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Re: Bottle Feeding Piglets

Post by Piggy » Wed Aug 27, 2014 11:55 am

It is not as hard as you think, if they are hungry they will d rink out of a pan. Be sure you have a good milk replacer and keep it clean . Piggy

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