EMERGENCY...Orphaned Baby Piglets!!!

[MuckBucket]

I actually work at a feed store However Im babysitting kids and all feedstores are closed here on Sundays, I will beable to get into my store later today when the kids are picked up but until then can I give them goats milk?? they are rooting looking for food, they were born between midnight and four and she will not let them nurse. They do have injuries, one in specific has a lot of brusing? They do not look like the baby pigs I've reserched online, thats why Im pretty sure they are premies. There eyes are closed! they have eyes but the slits are not open...kinda like puppies? Their hooves are very soft and white, and they have a layer of skin that is drying up and slowing peeling off of them kinda like snake skin. They can get up and move around but are getting weaker and weaker. Im already in love with them and feel so bad, I wish i new their moms history. I took a couple pics with my phone will try and post them next.

 

[SamuelMcF]

They do sound premature. Baby pigs are born with their eyes open. The "skin" is just the amniotic sac that was surrounding them in the uterus. that's normal. If its fresh goats milk you could give them some temporarily. But not some you'd get from a store because it will be pasteurized and homogenized. They need the real deal. lots of feed stores will open during emergencies. Mine has an emergency number to call on the front door. They would open for you so you can get these babies fed. They're not like chicks that can go 3-4 days. They start nursing right after they are born and they need to.

 

[saddina]

You can try the milk to give them something for the next few hours. Do you have a baby bottle? Soon as you can get to the feed store, get the right stuff, and go from there.

 

[SamuelMcF]

If you don't have a bottle a syringe is what we always use.

 

[MuckBucket]

Tell me what you think...premies?

 

[SamuelMcF]

They actually don't look premature at all! I think they look like good sized piglets! But they do seem awful weak

 

[MuckBucket]

Ok I have a call into a friend that is bringing me some Unimilk milk replacer, its a multi specirs milk replacer but labeled fro piglets too. I will use a syringe for now, how much does a baby pig eat? Thanks for all the help!

 

[SamuelMcF]

Yeah that sounds good! eventually you will want to train the pigs to drink out of a dish. Feeding a whole litter of pigs with a syringe for any long period of time will end up a full time job! But pigs are very smart. They need to be fed as much as they will drink every 3-4 hours for the first couple days then you can go down to a few times a day.

 

[RHRanch]

I nursed a baby piglet from 24hrs old until weaning. They eat about as often as human babies, day and night. Get pig milk replacere if you can. I had trouble getting my weak piglet to nurse. He didn't really start to thrive uuntil I got him drinking out of a shallow pan. I did this by putting replacer on my finger, and he would suck it. I kept doing this while lowering my hand into a pan, until he cought on to drink the replacer in the pan. Later when he was older, i made a thin cereal with cream of rice, etc.

You may find them unwilling to drink, my piglet liked strawberry quick in the replacer. You don't have to do that forever or anything, it just helped a weak piggy stay interested in the replacer.

 

[SamuelMcF]

Quote:
Good suggestions! If you just gently dip their nose in a pan of milk they'll get the idea. But with weak piglets you'll have to kind of force them to drink. But don't worry they'll get their strength up. But if they were born last night and haven't eaten anything at all they need to get something in their stomach ASAP