Maternity

Taking care orphaned piglets

Orphan piglets

When a sow or gilt dies or dries-off and there is no chance of fostering piglets, an attempt can be made to raise them artificially. If piglets are orphaned at an early age (1–2 days) they can be treated as surplus piglets and raised accordingly. If orphaned at 1 week old or later, they can be placed on liquid diets for the first few days and then switched to dry meals (milk based). Colostrum diets are of limited value at this age and less sophisticated mixtures can be fed.

There are 6 essentials for piglets care :

• Provide Warmth. When piglets are born, they need a warm, dry place to live.
• Pile Up Bedding. For bedding, straw or hay works well, with wood chips underneath for absorption.
• Feed Properly.
• Address Rooting Behavior.
• Control Parasites.
• Prevent Anemia.

Orphan mixtures

These particular mixtures can be made up and then stored under refrigeration. At feeding time, the amount required can be warmed to blood heat. Piglets are fed as much as they can consume in about 3–5 minutes. A guide is start off at 10–20 mL per piglet and increase to 80–100 mL per piglet per feed (three to four times per day). The important thing is not to overfeed, as this will increase their susceptibility to scouring.

The mixtures are fed:

• every 4 hours for the first and second days, i.e. six times per day;
• every 6 hours for the third and fourth days, i.e. four times daily;
• Every 8 hours, i.e. three times daily, until 10–14 days of age — at this stage, they should be handling dry feed which can entirely replace the milk mixture.

In Rwanda, the land become more scarce as the time come, we have to change mindset of many people for growing crops at small land by improved technologies and innovations and rearing animal for compensation to the agriculture sector , but also the animals that grows quicker than others and also that not require a wide space.