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Need help gaining weight

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 3:26 pm
by maribethrice
I have two fair pigs that were gaining good until a couple weeks ago. I thought it was because we got a heat wave but they’ve only been gaining a pound a day. I’ve been feeding them Purina 819 along with Moorman eatmoor, Purina heavyweight, and paylean. I’ve got 24 days until the fair and I’m really needing to be gaining 2.5lbs a day. I spray them off multiple times a day they are hand fed 3 times a day and I even bought them kiddy pools to lay in. Also they are on concrete. Any help on how to gain weight would be appreciated The gilt weighs 204 and the barrow weighs 187. They gotta be between 210-300 at our fair

Re: Need help gaining weight

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2019 5:12 pm
by kgb
Few things:

Check the water source. Water intake is directly related to feed intake. If something is impairing water intake (it’s dirty, or hot, or insufficient volume), feed intake will be impaired and growth will suffer.

Are they eating well? (6 lb or more per day)

If they are eating well, and only gaining 1 lb per day, check your scale. Make sure it’s accurate.

If all of that is good, take their temperature (rectally). Normal body temperature for pugs is about 102.5. If it’s much higher than that the pigs need antibiotics.

Re: Need help gaining weight

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:31 pm
by brooklyn_p12
Have they been wormed recently? There was a family in our county whose pigs weren’t gaining because they hadn’t been wormed in a while. If you do need to worm them, make sure to check the withdrawal time because you are getting close to fair

Re: Need help gaining weight

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:18 pm
by maribethrice
They have been wormed They started picking up weight good for a week My barrow gained 18lbs in a week and my gilt gained 14lbs. But now it seems like they won’t eat as much as they were. I was wondering if lowering the fiber would help.