[Gpdd] MISC Welcome again Teresa

[Penny Charlesworth]

Welcome back to the GPDD, Teresa. I wasn't a member when you were here before so I will introduce myself. My name is Penny and I have a little piggy rescue and sanctuary in England called "Piggyfriends".

Well done for bringing those two piggies into your home. Willow is so lucky to have a loving home at last, after her ordeal in the classroom.

Other digesters will know this story, so they can skip to the next post, but this is my experience with very young pregnant sows. A number of years ago, I was asked to give a home to four baby sows, two of about 8 weeks and two a couple of weeks older. Needless to say, one the younger sows was really a boar and although I separated them immediately upon their arrival here, the damage had already been done. All three sows were pregnant.

They were only babes themselves and I worried about them all through their pregnancies. I followed Peter Gurney's advice and offered them a dish of brown bread and milk twice a week to ensure that they had enough calcium for the babes. They loved this ( yes, I know lots of people will say that piggies shouldn't have milk but it worked for me ) and also the raspberry leaves that I gave them, as these are said to help in pregnancy.

They all gave birth on the same morning to 13 healthy pups between them ( two fours and a five ) with no problems whatsoever and I was so enthralled watching all of this take place that I forgot to be worried. The new mothers recovered from their ordeal immediately and were kept busy cleaning each other's pups. I kept them all together in one huge pen and they all fed which ever babe came to them. I continued to put the bread and milk in their pen for the next three weeks as I was concerned that such young mothers might not have enough milk of their own but this was not a problem. They all gathered around the dish anyway, mothers and babes alike.

So I hope that your little one has as easy a time of it as did my Jasmine, Chloe and Cloud.

Do let us know how your girls get on. Have you named your "maybe" mum yet?

Welcome again,

Good luck from Penny and the Piggyfriends.