Adjustment Methods and Technical Key Points for Uneven Strength in Piglets

1. Separate the strong from the weak, and feed them in turns on schedule. Divide a litter into one pen for the piglets that grow well and have stronger constitutions, and another pen for the lighter, poorly developed piglets. At first, they can be placed separately in baskets with lids, and in cold weather, straw should be spread and cotton quilts added on top. Rotate the piglets to nurse every 1-2 hours; after 1 week, feed them in turns every 3 hours, and after 1 month, feed them in turns every 4 hours.

2. Fix the teats, and make sure they get good colostrum. Weak piglets, because their limbs are weak and they move with difficulty, often cannot find the teats in time, especially in cold seasons, when their bodies become stiff from the cold and they cannot suckle. Therefore, after the sow finishes farrowing, place the weak piglets on the front teats, which have more milk, and let the strong piglets suck from the teats with less milk, leaving no teat unused. This can promote the development of the sow's mammary glands.

3. Introduce solid feed early, and wean in stages. After piglets are 7 days old, feed can be used to attract them to eat. Put the feed in your palm and hold it up to the piglets' mouths to let them lick it. After 2-3 days, the piglets can eat freely from the trough. The feed should be fed dry, and water should not be added to make a paste, so as not to affect the result. After feeding, provide plenty of clean drinking water for them to drink freely; in winter, use warm water. Use wooden sticks to nail dividers in the trough according to the number of piglets, so as to prevent them from fighting for food and the stronger ones from lying in the trough. About 40 days after farrowing, the sow's milk secretion gradually decreases. If the weights of two litters of piglets differ greatly, the healthy, heavier litter can be kept in baskets to be weaned and fed and defecated outside the baskets. Leave the weaker litter with the sow to continue nursing for 15 days, and the effect of making the two litters equal in weight can be achieved. Within 2 months from separation into pens, do not let them mix together, so as to avoid fighting and biting.

4. Prevent disease, and inject vaccines. Within 30 days after piglets are born, feeding the sow 1-2 spoonfuls of livestock terramycin mixed into the feed every day can effectively prevent and treat white scour in piglets. If white scour is found in piglets, immediately grind 2 tablets of sulfamethoxazole tablets (with the letters SMT printed on the tablets) into fine powder, mix with 2 spoonfuls of water, and administer orally. Generally, 1-2 doses will cure it. When administering orally, hold the pig up, clamp it tightly between your knees, take a wooden stick as thick as a thumb and let it hold it in its mouth, and pour the medicine in one small spoonful at a time. Within 40 days, piglets should be injected once with the three-combined vaccine and piglet paratyphoid vaccine.