In an earlier post (10,000ft View), I alluded to the fact that piglets are sometimes fostered from their birth mother, and adopted by another mom on the farm.  In this post, I will have the opportunity to share more about what that means, why it is necessary, and who these awesome sows are that adopt piglets in need.

 

Ideally, all piglets would be raised by their birth mother. Unfortunately, some sows have more babies than they can care for. Even if they have enough milk, sometimes one piglet is smaller or is bullied within the litter. If they are not removed from their birth litter, those piglets will starve.

It is unacceptable to allow a piglet to starve, but what do we do with these piglets?

First, we find an adoptive mother. We look for a sow that in the past has done a good job caring for her previous litters.  We spend time picking out just the right sow since she needs a strong motherly instinct to raise piglets that are not her own.

[caption id="attachment_860" align="aligncenter" width="576"] This mom raised 14 piglets of her own. Now that her piglets are weaned, she is going to adopted 12 babies today.[/caption]

The second step is to find all the babies that are not doing well on their own mother. We identify and gather those piglets together to form a new litter.

[caption id="attachment_859" align="aligncenter" width="576"]Adopted piglet. This piglet is too skinny. He wasn’t doing well on his own mom. Today he is going to be adopted by a different sow.[/caption]

Step three is introducing the newly formed litter to their new adoptive mom. If we did a good job picking the right mom, the transition is very smooth. Usually she accepts her piglets right away and lies down so they can nurse. These piglets were not doing well on their own mother and are usually itching to get a full belly from their new mom.