PIGLETS

Over the last week or two I have had a growing list of things to blog about. That list is now up to 6 items but this post will have to stand all by itself and be about one and only one thing: Tangly Woods has piglets!! Oh, which pictures and videos should I share. We have just a few to choose from. :)

It's mostly but not entirely a happy story, and maybe that is partly why I have been hesitant to put anything on the blog. No, that's not really the reason - I just haven't had any moments to spare (see future blog post - yet to be written - about all the other things...).

This goes back a ways, as most stories of pregnancy and birth do! We had borrowed a boar last fall and were eager about spring piglets. We did a great job of convincing ourselves that both our female pigs were pregnant. No spring piglets! We had given the boar back by that time and weren't sure how to proceed until the offer to buy him came along. Now you may wonder why we went ahead and purchased a boar that had failed to impregnate either of our sows! Well, he was on the young side when we first borrowed him and so we thought it possible that he just wasn't fertile yet. So we wanted to give him another chance. But some of us were determined to not get our hopes up this time around until there were piglets in front of our eyes!

That said, we also wanted to be prepared so we were keeping track of both sows' cycles and noted that the black one stopped cycling. So we figured out her due date and it happened to fall right on the weekend we planned to be in WV with friends. Sigh! Still saying "if she is pregnant," we warned our house sitters and accumulated a list of "on call" folks that new something about pigs (lots more than we do any way). We left last Friday hoping, IF she was pregnant, she would wait until we returned. She did, but not by much!

We got back Sunday evening and the only pig-related excitement that evening was that our other sow (the red one that is not yet pregnant as far as we know) decided to add to the complexity and chaos of transitioning home after a trip and was seen by our neighbor walking up the driveway adjacent to ours. After considerable effort (why would she want to leave the chestnuts once she found them), Jason got her back in with our neighbor and Kali's help. He checked the fence only to discover that he had forgotten to turn it back on Thursday when he moved them - so the electric fence was off all weekend while we were gone. Another thing we are very glad our friends didn't have to deal with while we were gone!!

Monday morning Jason got up to check on her and do chores before I left for a long day in the office. Sure enough she was in active labor and Jason could see at least 2 piglets. I ran down to see for myself before tearing myself away. For this "wanna-be-doula" leaving a birth is no small thing!! I got an update or two throughout the day and by day's end she had 5 piglets (or so we thought - later it turned out there were actually 6). The sow didn't seem to have any trouble and the piglets were nursing even before the mama was done laboring. By the time I got home and checked on her she was sacked out (snoring!) and there was a wriggling pile next to her.

This is the sad part of the story. We are now down to 4 piglets and one of the 4 remaining seems a little different but we can't tell if that "different" is a problem or just his way (he's the only little boy left). Jason found two dead on the second morning after they were born. Since we didn't see any other problems, our hypothesis is that she mistakenly laid on them but we really don't know. As you can see, she is quite large and they are quite small. It's kind of nerve-wracking to see her going into the house and rooting around and the laying down, especially since sometimes they are all piled under straw and you can't see anything but straw moving.

The mama seems to be adjusting to motherhood pretty well. She is up and around some now but lays around a lot letting them nurse. I'm so fascinated by the process and of course am thinking of my own experiences as a lactating mother. I'm really glad I just nursed one at a time. :) I do think I've figured out that she makes a different sound when her milk lets down. The piglets will be rooting all around and not settling and she'll make occasional grunts. Then she'll start grunting rhythmically and then they will settle into sucking steadily!

She is funny in her nesting behaviors. The one day Jason finally got in there with her to put some straw into the back of the house where the piglets can get away from her if need be (to not be rolled upon). As soon as he did that, she came over, went in and started pulling it back out of the house. Then when we brought her a large stack of weeds she took them and started taking them into the house. Silly gal! She's finding her way though! I just wonder if she likes her new role or if she is baffled by how drastically her life has changed in the past 4 days!

Here's a few more pictures of the little family (minus dad who we have congratulated but has no idea what has happened). I should add that the dad has acquired the name "Mister" (or you might think of it as "missed her") from Jason, since he tries really hard to mate with our large red sow but so far she is just too tall for him. But clearly he didn't miss on this one!

 

They are pretty cute and we are pretty happy to welcome them to the neighborhood. I hope they will find Tangly Woods a good place to live out their lives! We'll do our best to make it so!

Here's a video of all 6 of them play fighting when they were not more than about 24 hours old:


And here's one of the remaining 4 nursing while mama does the aforementioned grunts: