[Gpdd] MISC How to get piggy to eat pellets

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hello Jean,

Thank you for taking in that precious little piggy in need.

I've taken in very young pregnant sows - no more than babes themselves. It
is so sad when people can't sex piggies properly as piggies this young
should not be having to provide nutrients for babes when they are still
growing themselves.

However...... I don't think this little girl will suffer from a lack of
pellets. I provide a bowl of dried food for each Piggyfriend but it is only
something to munch between meals and many of them hardly touch it. I give
them copious amounts of fresh veggies every day together with a pile of
grass and this, with their hay, provides everything that they need.

I am sure that, if you do the same for her, she will thrive. She has
probably never seen pelleted food before and, as they learn what is good to
eat from their mothers, mum was, most likely, also deprived of pellets.

I have always offered a dish of brown bread and milk in the last trimester
( if I can guess when this is ). Peter Gurney always did it. When the babes
are born, I leave the dish in there for mum and little ones to share. This
has been an absolute lifesaver for any sow who does not have enough of her
own milk as the babes can lap it up from a very shallow dish.

I once had three very young sows give birth on the same day. Like your
little girl, they were little more than babes themselves but they had 13
little ones between them and, had I not had the great joy of watching them
being born, I would not have known whose babe was whose as they fed which
ever one came to them, whether the little one was theirs or not. Such
lovely memories!

Please let us know how she gets on and what you decide to call her. I wish
her good luck with her pregnancy. I am sure that this is not the first time
that you have dealt with a situation like this and, for both of us, it
probably won't be the last.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.