Piglets, piglets everywhere
Since Bertie the boar set things going in April we we've been anxiously waiting for the results.....and we got a flood of piglets - 16 in all! Just before the opening night of the Olympics both our young mothers produced. And the piglets are beautiful, ginger, black and pink, with sticky-up ears.
But nothing is straightforward, Woolly produced four lovely piglets and all seemed to be going well then she suddenly rejected them. This sometimes happens with first time mothers. What to do?
Well we tried bottle feeding - which didn't work too well as the piglets were too small and weak, and time was running out, and then we had a brainwave, foster them onto our other mum, Blackburn. And to make her accept them we dusted her litter and the 'orphans' with talcum powder - the one that has been sitting at the back of the bathroom cabinet. The farrowing pen smelt wonderful and best of all Blackburn accepted the orphans.
Of course it didn't all go smoothly. Piglets like to establish a pecking order and over the next few days there was a lot of chewing of ears but it's all right now!
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