wildwoods
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She killed and ate her own piglets!I had 2 gilts, sisters, due to farrow last week - the first (Midge) was scared, but wonderful. She had 8 piglets and after a little (expected) clumsiness, she now has a happy, healthy little brood.
\Her sister started farrowing today - and I've never seen such horrers. She killed the first 3 pigless by tossing them and then biting them in half. One managed to escape and we took all the others away instantly when they were born. They're now living in the utility room, on baby milk, and I'm having a brain shuffle trying to decide if they should go back to her for milk tomorrow.
I'm a first timer, I've checked with the guys we bought them off that we'd done nothing wrong, nothing was missing for her, we'd treated them both the same.?
I can't even start to tell you what a piglet \half alive after being attacked and half eaten by it's mother looks like - but at this moment corporate life appeals a little more than it did last week!!
I'm a realist, but why would any creature do this?
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Jonnyboy
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That's horrific - poor you and poor piglets.
I don't think it's unheard of, and someone on here with pig knowledge will know the reason I'm sure
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NeathChris
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Give her a pint, and maybe a stresnil, then put piglets back on her under supervision and see how it goes.
I have never had this problem so dont have any actual expierience of this but have heard of it.
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judith
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That sounds like a dreadful experience - I'm so sorry.
I've no advice, but I wonder if she had been generally spooked by fireworks over the weekend. Would that affect her?
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VSS
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Neath Chris is right, give her some beer - it has been known to work wonders.
I think a gallon might be more appropriate?
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mochyn
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That's sad, but not unheard of. We were lucky with Heulog: she's so calm and friendly and didn't change her character at all when she farrowed. Her sister was a more assertive animal though, which was why we chose Heulog as our breeding sow. The other was very tasty, though! If I were you I'd go with the beer trick too.
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Bodger
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Yep
One Christmas I had to pour cans and cans down a GOS that wanted to eat me and her piglets. She and I had a grand party that night and had to fight over who had the last can but it did work and the following day although we both had head aches we were both friends again 
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wildwoods
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She's a Saddleback - supposed to make good mothers aren't they?
We thought that she'd finished when she'd had eight, but she went on to have another 3 - she's crushed 2 of them and they're dead, but she's now suckling one lone piglet?
I don't trust her enough to put the 3 we saved back with her and I'm going to try and get our 1st mum to foster them.
I drank all the beer myself last night, and the wine and most of the other stuff too. Best be off to the shops for more huh!!
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dpack
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horrid
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wildwoods
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We removed the 2 'crushed' piglets as soon as we could, but on closer inspection they weren't crushed, they were killed like the other 3. Their legs were broken, probably from where she flicked them, and they had bite marks on their tummies.
The runt she was suckling has also died, we're checking every hour or so, and he was fine and cuddling her tummy for warmth, but by 2.00 he was so cold that a heat lamp, hot water bottle and my husbands chest sadly couldn't save him.
My first mum is now looking after 12 piglets, 8 of her own and the 4 foster pigs - I just know that she knows they're not hers, but she's happy to try and help - although I did see her putting up a 'no vacancies' sign as we left her a little while ago.
Maybe she would like some beer?
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dpack
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keep good mum
bad mum will plump up for sausages
ruthless but you dont need the upset and loss
keep a couple of the little ones to replace her , maybe not her ones
hope it works out ok
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Rob R
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| dpack wrote: | keep good mum
bad mum will plump up for sausages
ruthless but you dont need the upset and loss
keep a couple of the little ones to replace her , maybe not her ones
hope it works out ok |
dpack is right
We have one sow who attacks piglets while giving birth (started on the second litter, we didn't have beer, but she got sozzled on wine). Stayed with her for the third litter & took them away under the lamp until it was all over. Last litter she had on her own, no problems, but has eaten one at 4 weeks. It's not practical to keep doing that so sausages is her destination.
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gil
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| wildwoods wrote: | | Maybe she would like some beer? |
Sounds as though she deserves some, anyway - Guinness, perhaps.
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Blue Sky
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I missed this. That sounds frightening. I hope you manage to sort things out and it's good to hear that the other sow is behaving well. Do you need two? If not I would vote for the sausage option. It's a shame I know to sacrifice a fertile animal but at the end of the day it is survival of the fitest.
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wildwoods
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2 more of the fostered piglets have died - one last night and one today. No obvious signs of damage, not squashed, not cut or bitten - they just look like they've gone to sleep.They were suckling and mixing well with the group, so who knows what went wrong?
Only 2 fostered pigs left now and my 'killer' sow is back to her normal cheery, verbal self!!
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wildwoods
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Thank you all so much for your comments, but we've decided she's not to be sausages!! Found a rather handsome chap down the road who's willing to share his accomodation with her for a while - so she gets a second chance - and I hope that we don't live to regret our decision?
The 9 piglets we have are doing well, big time mischief, and I'm sure that any seasoned pig breeders would tut, but out of 9 we have 1 boar and 1 fostered and they hang around together all the time - where you find one you find the other!! Who says they don't know that they're different?
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