sow had 20 babies

jellybeans · Post by **jellybeans** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:04 pm

This was her second litter. 19 are living. One was stillborn. I just didn't get to it in time and she just plum ran out of gas. She only has 14 nipples. Luckily we had another sow farrow 9 today so we put a few babies on her to cross foster.

Poor thing, she has babies running around everywhere.... she just stands there and looks at them zoom around her feet. 8O

Pigmandog · Post by **Pigmandog** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:10 pm

daaaaam sound like litters my new boar on stud is throwing. congratulations and I hope you have some milk replacer on your hands!

If you need milk replacer I would suggest using birthright or land o lakes.

cab97 · Post by **cab97** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:02 pm

Congratulations! I wish i had that problem my gilt had her first litter today and the 2 pigs she had was dead.

cab97 · Post by **cab97** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:04 pm

I wish i had your problem!

jellybeans · Post by **jellybeans** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:12 pm

oh my cab97....I am really sorry to hear that

reddawg · Post by **reddawg** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:16 pm

I had an old guilt trip sow raise 17 pigs. She had 17 and raised them all unfortunatly she never bred back again. Congrats on the great litter.

mtbkmom · Post by **mtbkmom** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:20 pm

Wow--how cool is that? Who is the sire and sire of the mother and WHO ARE THE DAMS!!!

Ericka · Post by **Ericka** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:17 am

I had a sow farrow 20 in 2004. We had no other sow farrowing so it was a pain on the butt. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. 18 were alive and weaned 15 but it was some work. You are so lucky that you can move some. I have 3 litters coming next month and hope to even them out if need be. It is also not fun to have every nipple full as that is what happened to me in November.

jellybeans · Post by **jellybeans** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:49 am

Ericka..you are right. Thank goodness I had another sow to even out the babies. Right now they both have 14. It is a little difficult for them not to step on anyone or squash someone when they lay down. I have had to handfeed a litter with milk replacer once before. It was not an easy task.

mtbkmom I sent you a message

kidkingofthering · Post by **kidkingofthering** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:39 pm

That's awesome! I have only heard of one litter bigger than that. A couple of years ago, my neighbors had a Duroc sow that had 22. 5 died though so the sow had just enough nipples. They were all very small. I'm guessing yours are too. I have a york gilt due two weeks from now. She has a huge belly on her. Bigger than I've ever seen before. She only has 14 nipples as well, but I have a spot sow due three days later so if she has too many, we will only have to feed them for a couple of days.

jellybeans · Post by **jellybeans** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:51 pm

Believe it or not they are normal size. She had about 4 that were on the smaller side. The first one that came out was a monster. Thank goodness he was first because I dont think he would have made it out alive if he was last. She got pretty tired at the end. The one that was stillborn was fully developed and had beautiful markings. I should have went in and pulled him. I was trying not to have to do that if at all possible. Had I went in a few seconds earlier I think he would have lived.

Thank goodness I kept her on a strict diet or this would have been a disaster. She got the first one through her pelvic bone. I have no idea how. His feet came out and that was it. I had to pull him from his feet and he would not budge. I wiggled him back and forth a little and his rump came out. Then I had to keep pulling and then finally his shoulders came lose and he slid out. I thought we were going to be in big trouble for the rest of them......It made me nervous. But thankfully no one got stuck.

It was weird. We noticed the larger ones all came rump first. The smaller ones came head first. Who knows!

After this, I am a true believer in keeping the sows feed intake monitored. I can definitely see how overfeeding them can cause a major farrowing disaster.

Ericka · Post by **Ericka** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:28 am

To this day I still weigh my sows feed out. Right now they are on 4 1/2 pounds. I still get larger babies but my sows just spit them out. In 10 years I have only had to go in twice. Once to adjust a head that was tilted wrong and just this November to get a baby that was tangled up in afterbirth. That sow is a breeders dream big and open inside. I don't even think a baby could get stuck.

TxPorkchop · Post by **TxPorkchop** » Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:32 am

Last year, one of my gilts had a litter of 21. 15 born alive and 6 born dead. She raised 13 of the 15. About half of the litter were average size babies and the other half were very small. For a while, she was literally having 2 at a time, one right after the other. She got tired towards the end and we had to pull the last couple, but all things considered it went pretty well. I kept my favorite gilt out of the litter. This fall when that gilt farrowed it was a train wreck. She ended up with 6 live pigs and we had to pull 4 of those 6.