Why a sow refuses to nurse her piglets
Many pig farmers find that after they have worked hard to help a sow farrow successfully, the sow keeps refusing to nurse her piglets. When the piglets try to suckle, she rejects them and may even bite them. In the end, the piglets have nothing to eat and starve to death. What exactly causes a sow to refuse to nurse her piglets? And how should it be solved? Below, the editor will explore this with everyone!
1. The sow has no experience
Generally, those unwilling to nurse their piglets are sows giving birth for the first time. After going through the pain of farrowing, they become nervous and develop a fear of nursing the piglets, or they cannot adapt to the annoyance of the piglets around them, and so they refuse to nurse. If you encounter such a first-time "mother" sow, a caretaker should be beside the sow to train her to nurse. When the sow lies down, gently scratch her belly with your hand, and control the piglets so they do not fight over the teats, giving the sow a quiet nursing environment. After 3-4 times, the sow will gradually adapt. Also, during pregnancy, massage the sow's udder frequently so that later, when the piglets feed, the sow will stay calm and nurse quietly.
2. Not adapting to the environment
After a sow farrows, she generally needs to be moved with her piglets to a new pig house, but because the sow has not adapted to the new environment, she becomes nervous and will not let the piglets drink milk, refusing to nurse them. For such a sow with a weak ability to adapt to the environment, she should be moved to the new pig house several days earlier, before she begins to farrow, so that she can become familiar with the new environment in advance. After going through an adaptation process and calming down, she will actively nurse the piglets.
3. The sow has no milk
When a sow has plenty of milk, her udder will swell about every 1-2h, the piglets begin to drink, and after they finish, the udder gradually goes down and the sow feels very comfortable. But when the sow has no milk, the hungry piglets will still keep sucking the teats, which makes the sow irritable from being sucked. She first begins to stop the piglets from sucking, and later simply lies flat on the ground, pressing down and covering the teats so the piglets cannot keep nudging them. This phenomenon mainly occurs in malnourished, thin sows. In response, the sow's nutrition should be strengthened. After farrowing, gradually increase the sow's feed amount, supplement the trace elements and minerals the sow needs, and improve the milk yield and quality.
4. Sore teats
Sometimes a sow has plenty of milk and her udder is very swollen, and she will even call the piglets over to feed, but as soon as the piglets take a teat in their mouths, the sow cries out and stands up, and may even attack the piglets. It is neither an environmental cause nor a first-time sow. This is because the sow's teats have mastitis, so as soon as the piglets touch them it hurts very much and she will not let the piglets drink. It may also be because the piglets' teeth are uneven, crooked or too sharp and have bitten the sow painfully, making the sow averse to nursing. When a sow is found to have mastitis, promptly use penicillin and other medicines for prevention and treatment, and also file the piglets' teeth flat and trim them even.
The above are the reasons why a sow may be unwilling to nurse her piglets. It may also be because the sow became infected with a disease after farrowing, causing inflammation and leading to an aversion to nursing the piglets. Sows and piglets are important factors in the development of the whole pig farm, so close attention must be paid to the sow's condition. If refusal to nurse occurs, find out clearly what reason is causing it, and then treat it accordingly.