piggie update #1

The piglets will be 2 weeks old tomorrow.



The three females are way bigger than the male, which is apparently normal.



I have tried using the internet to find out about all sorts of pig related husbandry, and scoured our books, for information on various issues we are having. in the end as Rick keeps telling me, don't worry about it nature will take it's course. The male piglet although a bit thin is just generally smaller, the females are generally bigger. The sow seems to have mastitis, however she's not under the weather and isn't bothered about me touching her udder, so I'm leaving well alone. As she only had a litter of four it doesn't seem be a problem. There's still no farrow rail, again not a problem so far, so we're not getting one.

The ear nibbling also sounds terrible and the blood looks terrible, but the ears heal well and our pigs arrived with bits missing from their ears so, I guess that's normal too.

Click play to watch piggies fighting



There isn't alot on the internet about pig rearing outside of countries like UK and USA, I'm guessing lots of people are doing it like us, they're just not writing about it. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not loosing any sleep about whether I'm doing all the right things, the fact remains the pigs are healthy and happy and nothing died. We must be doing something right.