What attracts new born piglets? |
1 |
Vocalisation of
sows |
2 |
Dark areas |
3 |
Afterbirth and
birth fluids |
4 |
Movement along
hair patterns |
Suckling after birth |
1 |
Piglets contact
teat as quickly as 3 minutes, but average 15 minutes to
contact the udder and 30 minutes to contact the teat |
2 |
Milk
continuously available for several hours little aggression
as pigs sample teats |
3 |
Cyclic milk
ejection, approximately hourly, results in more aggression |
Cyclic nursing
and suckling (approximately once every hour) |
|
Sow |
Piglets |
Slow grunting |
Assemble at
udder |
Increase grunt
rate |
Nosing and teat
location |
Rapid increase
in grunt rate |
Slow suckling |
Milk flow (15
sec) |
Rapid suckling |
Grunting
declines |
Slow suckling
or nosing |
Sleep or change
position |
Fall sleep |
Other factors |
1 |
Fan noise may
interfere with nursing cycles |
2 |
Piglets which
miss a nursing do not eat until next bout |
3 |
Nurse within a
room to synchronise |
4 |
Nursing can be
stimulated by sound or massage |
5 |
Post-suckling
massage related to milk yield and gut hormones |
Teat Order |
1 |
Established
within 3 days |
2 |
Consistence
often over 90% |
3 |
Less stable in
large litters |
4 |
About 10% of
piglets use more than one teat |
5 |
Multiple teats
more common in small litters |
6 |
Unused teats
regress |
7 |
When sow turns
over, so does the piglet teat order, it is teat specific |
Consequences of a teat order |
1 |
Stable teat
orders lead to more uniform growth |
2 |
Relative weight
gain within litters depends on competition for teat |
3 |
Evening out
litters by weights (first 3 days) or selective teeth
clipping reduced problem piglets |
4 |
Unused teats
produce less milk in subsequent lactation |
5 |
Mixing after
day 9 difficult to re-make teat order (1-2 days) |
In with natural
state, a sow would introduce
her piglets to other sow's piglets around day 10. After
day 14, the group of piglets join the main group. |
Fostering:
-
When a pig is
fostered after 48 hours total litter performance is
reduced
-
Fostering is
about two events
-
Foster after
day three if you want more even litters (total litter
size will be reduced)
-
Do not foster
after day three if you want to maximise total litter
weight (litter may be variable)
|