What are the common reasons why piglets grow slowly?

Some farmers report that the piglets they raise at home grow especially slowly. What exactly are the reasons? On analysis, there are mainly the following reasons.

1. Improper weaning. Farmers @#@227@#@ mostly adopt the one-time weaning method, and the piglets are put on the market immediately after weaning, so the piglets' original living conditions, centered on the mother and living together with littermates in a stable and comfortable environment, suddenly change, making it hard for them to adapt for a time, which affects weight gain. In the 5-6 days before weaning, the number of suckling times should be gradually reduced until weaning is complete.

2. Delayed supplementary feeding. If piglets are not given supplementary feed in time during the suckling stage, they cannot eat well after weaning, causing slow growth and halted development. Generally, supplementary feeding should begin at 7 days of age, so that when the sow's milk production declines, the feed can formally make up for the shortage of the sow's milk. At first, use feed that is fragrant, sweet, crisp and easy to digest, then gradually change to normal feed.

3. Unreasonable feed and feeding methods. After weaning, piglets not only cannot get sow's milk, but the feed quality is also very poor, with more water and less feed in the ration, and the number of daily feedings also drops sharply from 6-8 times before weaning to 3 times a day. These drastic changes in conditions hinder the piglets' normal development. Therefore, when buying pigs, ask the seller in detail about the feeding and management situation of the pigs, so as to ensure feed quality and quantity with a gradual transition, a gradual transition among concentrated, green and coarse feed, and a gradual reduction in feeding times from many to few.

4. Too great a change in environmental conditions. Before weaning, piglets are centered on the mother and live together with littermates. After weaning, they are generally kept one pig per pen, and the piglets cannot adapt to this lonely life in a short time, especially in the cold weather of winter, eating poorly and sleeping poorly, and are prone to many diseases and even death. Therefore, when buying pigs, try to learn as much as possible about their original rearing conditions, create a comfortable living environment for the piglets, and make changes in rearing conditions gradually.

5. Extensive management. At present, farmers raising pigs generally keep one pig per pen, and some pigs eat, sleep and defecate in the same place. In addition, if the pen is not cleaned and bedded frequently, the environment becomes filthy and the sanitary conditions are extremely poor. Especially in winter, this can easily cause a series of diseases such as colds and diarrhea in pigs, seriously affecting the pigs' health and being extremely unfavorable to growth and development. In actual pig production, according to how fast they eat and their temperament, 3-6 pigs can be kept per pen, so that the pigs compete for feed and grow fast, and training work should be done well so that they eat at a fixed place, defecate at a fixed place and sleep at a fixed place, keeping the environment sanitary.

6. Wrong timing for epidemic prevention and castration. Farmers mostly buy pigs at the market and carry out epidemic prevention and castration at the same time as purchase. In this way, the three unfavorable factors of weaning, epidemic prevention and castration are all imposed on the piglet at once, so that the piglet cannot recover its body weight for a long time, which seriously affects the pig's normal growth and development, causing the pig to grow slowly and become a runt, resulting in losses that should not occur. Generally, male piglets not kept for breeding can be castrated at 20 days of age, and female piglets at 30-40 days of age. To prevent certain infectious diseases, swine fever vaccine can be injected before 30 days of age, and erysipelas vaccine can be given at 3 months of age.