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pig not growing

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:10 pm
by Lil D
I purchased a 30 lb York X Barrow on Oct 27, 2018 for our county fair which will be the first week of March. He was born on Sept 2, 2018. We have now had this pig for 1 month and he has only gained 28 lbs. We noticed after we got him, when he was around other pigs, he was constantly trying to "nurse" on them. He was one of the smaller of the 4 that we got, but we believe he may have been the runt of the litter. He hasn't been trying to "nurse" for about 2 weeks now, but he doesn't seem to be growing at the same rate as the other 3. The others have already gained around 40 lbs each. This barrow that we are concerned about is eating and drinking and has energy. He doesn't act like he's sick, he just isn't gaining the amount of weight we think he should be. We are using Sunglo Pig Grower (started out with mash and now have been using the pellets for about 2 weeks). The weight requirements for the show, March 3rd, is 240-290. By my calculations, this pig will be around 40 pounds shy of the minimum weight requirement, if he continues at this rate and we know he will lose weight on the trailer as well. The tag in for the fair is this Saturday (4 days from now). We still have a few days to purchase another pig before then. Does anybody have any suggestions to ensure this pig makes the final weight, at least 260 pounds in 95 days?

Re: pig not growing

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2018 2:29 pm
by machog
A couple of questions.

Are all 4 of your pigs penned together? Are you hand feeding or are they on a self feeder? What is his current daily gain?

If he is penned with 3 other pigs and is the smaller of the group you can count on him being pushed off of the feed thus he will never catch up.

Re: pig not growing

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:46 pm
by Lil D
all 4 pigs are in seperate pens we have been hand feeding some,but for the most part self feeder

Re: pig not growing

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:57 am
by Lil D
I need to clarify that he is using an automatic feeder, but we only put about 4lbs of feed in per day. 2lbs in the AM and 2 in PM. He's probably only eating about 3lbs of that and he's averaging 1 lb per day of gain.

Re: pig not growing

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:34 pm
by machog
Sounds like he will be a problem for you so it might be time to get another pig to replace him. You probably are corect in thinking that he is the runt of the litter and most times they just do not perform as well.

Good Luck

Re: pig not growing

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:47 pm
by Lil D
That's what we decided to do, swap him for another. He was actually the first piglet born from that litter. The little girl that was going to show him, went to say her good-byes and give him a treat, a glazed donut, and he wouldn't even eat that. He chewed on it a second and spit it out. That's when I knew that there is something definitely not right about this pig. I appreciate everyone's replies and advice. Thank you!!

Re: pig not growing

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 1:49 pm
by kgb
Just FYI a 30 lb pig will only eat about 1.5 lb per day. A 58 lb pig (30 + 28) will eat about 2.9 (round to 3) lb per day.

And, pigs don’t gain 2 lb per day everyday of their life. Most pigs average about 1.8 to 1.9 lb/day from 40 to 260 lb. they gain faster as they get bigger.