How old are my piglets? Diet?

[rachki]

Hello all,

A lot of local farmers are starting to go under with the pork supply backing up due to processing plants being shut down. Our local community of farmers and rural folks bought a local farmer out of his piglets so he wouldn't go under. I picked up 2 piglets for feeder pigs.

I am curious how old folks estimate they are. I am thinking 3-5 weeks, closer to the 3 week side.

I've raised feeder pigs every year for the past couple years, so I'm not new to them, but I usually get them at 7-10 weeks old rather than this small. What should I feed them?

Last night I fed them whole milk mixed with grower feed pellets and let the pellets absorb the milk into a mash before feeding it to them. I figured that'd be good enough for 1 night. In the above pic they're just drinking water currently.

Thanks all for your help!

 

[SamuelMcF]

They can have milk if you want to get it for them but that can get pretty expensive quick. Most commercial places wean them as soon as 3 weeks! yours look older than that to me. I want to say they look around 6 weeks but a little hard to tell.

The best thing for them would be a pig starter feed. Most feed stores should carry it.

 

[rachki]

They can have milk if you want to get it for them but that can get pretty expensive quick. Most commercial places wean them as soon as 3 weeks! yours look older than that to me. I want to say they look around 6 weeks but a little hard to tell.

The best thing for them would be a pig starter feed. Most feed stores should carry it.

Thanks Samuel.

I got them on some pig starter/grower I had left over from 4 months ago and they seem to be taking to it. Based on your recommendation I'll just keep on with the grower. I'll slowly phase out the whole milk.

 

[cassie]

When I had little pigs I fed them milk with some sort of baby pig starter. I had goats so I had plenty of milk to feed the pigs. One night I had no milk (long story) so I mixed water with the baby pig food. My orphan was not happy. Since he was very little I had him in the house. I could tell how unhappy he was. I think the neighbors could, too. He refused to eat his dinner and he screamed, as only a pig can scream, all night long. None of us got any sleep that night.