Saddleback Sow Has Nine Piglets
I am delighted to say that Cagney, my Saddleback sow has had nine healthy piglets.
On Tuesday tea time I placed Cagney in the farrowing crate as she had milk when I squeezed her teats. I was able to do this on my own as Cagney is a very placid and gentle sow. It wasn’t long before she had her first piglet.
This is Cagney’s third litter. The second litter she farrowed unaided and before I got to the barn as it was in the early hours. In some ways it is better when you are not there as the sow and piglets just get on with it. However it is always good to be there so that you can assist if a piglet needs help or the sow is becoming aggressive like Lacy did over a week ago. With Lacy biting one of her piglets whilst she was farrowing I became very nervous when Cagney started to farrow. Once bitten twice shy if you’ll excuse the pun.
Cagney was very restless and after the first piglet was born she kept turning round and I thought that she might snap at the piglet so I decided to put the piglet in a box. I gathered each piglet into the box under the lamp as they were born.
When the piglets are born they instinctively start to search for the teats within minutes of being born. I let each piglet do this for a few minutes so that Cagney would know that the piglets were there.
The first five piglets arrived quite quickly but then there was a long gap and I had to put my hand in to check that the piglet wasn’t stuck.
Farrowing pigs is always difficult because you never know how many piglets they will have.
When cagney had her 7th piglet there was alot of cleansing which is a sign that the farrowing is over. However her behaviour was unchanged and she seemed to still be having contractions and pushing.
Another two piglets arrived and then as Lacy was feeding her piglets Cagney started to cleanse. Once she had done this I let her rest for a bit and then took out a piglet and let it try to nuzzle at the back of Cagney. I was very nervous as I didn’t want to release the piglets for Cagney to attack them. I got a stick and pretended that the stick was a piglet and moved it around near Cagney’s face. She looked at the stick but didn’t snap at it. I thought that it would be safe to let the piglets go in with Cagney. I gently emptied them from the box and there was a lot of grunting and squealing and then Cagney laid on her side and the piglets started to suckle. When they first go to the teats it is interesting to watch as they swop teats and try to find one that they are happy with. I stayed to make sure all was well and then went to bed at 2.45 in the morning.
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Awesome! Congrats! I just watched on animal planet a story about how piglets fight pretty agressively for the teets the first time, with the dominant piglet getting the best teet, and on down the line, and how once the piglets establish who has what teet, they never change. Even if you take all of the piglets and mix them up they will all go back to “their” teets without any fighting.
Great story!
Comment by Moe — September 27, 2008 @ 11:58 am
Hi Moe, Thanks for visiting and commenting.
You are right the piglets fight for the teats and then within a day they settle down and always stick to the same teat. Yes the most dominant piglets get the best teats. Some of the piglets even get to suckle on more than one if they are canny!
Animal behaviour is so interesting.
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — September 28, 2008 @ 8:48 am
Good news to hear Sara! Well done Cagney!
Comment by Tracey — September 29, 2008 @ 10:32 am
Hi Tracey,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Cagney did well, producing nine healthy piglets and showing no aggression towards the piglets.
I am pleased to report that I now have 17 piglets in total and they are now two or three weeks old and are growing fast. I will post some photos soon for you to look at. Sorry it’s taken a while to reply but I have been to London to film Ready Steady Cook and have been very busy with my animals. My 7 saddleback boars were sold this week but they didn’t want to go in the trailer and then when we arrived at their destination they didn’t want to get out!
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — October 9, 2008 @ 5:51 pm