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Babies have stopped growing

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MarthaAndMaud

MarthaAndMaud

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I have two, 12 weeks old sows in the shelter. These two sows were born from Humbug, together with two boars. The boars grew as normal and have been re-homed. However, the girls have stopped growing and are still very tiny indeed. They are only a little bigger than a hamster and weigh next to nothing, yet they are holding their weight and are not skinny or boney.

They eat and drink fine, popcorn and play in the garden. However they are not growing. We've tried Complan as this is known to help boost underweight babies but they won't touch it.

We have now been advised to worm them but i'm uncertain that this is the problem and they are really so tiny it's a scary thing to do to them.

Does anybody please have any other ideas on things I could try to aid their growth or the reason why they are so very small?

Thank you
Claire

Fifipipinfra.jpg
 
I had a very tiny sow, sadly she has passed away now though she was inbred so that may have been why she was little, her brother isnt overly big.. this is her at about 1yr old to give you some idea of how small she was:

meekacage3.jpg


those are the meduim fiddlestix she is sat on, she too ate like a horse and was generally happy etc..

if your going to worm make sure its a herbal wormer, i tried worming her but i think she was just generally small.. but I own her mum too (i got her when she was lready pregnant, she was living with her brothers) and she isnt big.. is the bubs mother relatively small herself?
 
Hi, just had a look at that thread and she was huge! poor little thing.. My dixie had 4 pups too they were quite small at birth, but she had one big one that was still born so that could explain why my piggies are not overly big.. were the pups really small at birth?

I chose to use this wormer: http://www.verm-x.com/product%2010.htm

Although I dont think she had worms anyway so cant comment if they worked or not lol i think some piggies that are fussy might not eat them and as they are like a small biscuit/block thing you cant really get it into them any other way than them eating it, so if they dont like it you have bought something which will be wasted, although they do come in a re-sealable pack so do keep should you need them again for a pig which will eat them.

I'm not sure if its possible but can they send a sample of poop off for testing to see if it is worms?
 
Try some Cavy Cuisine Performance and Alfalfa Hay both by Oxbow. It's a worry when they are so small - I have a mum here who is well and eating lots but I just can't get her to put on any weight either, I just make sure she has lots of small meals throughout the day in addition to her hay and pellets.

Assuming there is nothing to indicate that they are unwell they may just never be big pigs. What are their weights?
 
When Junior was born, he was the runt of the litter. At about three weeks old, he stopped growing. He was so tiny! Up until he was about three months old, he could fit into the palm of my hand. He was such a picky eater. I found that giving him a special diet really helped improve his overall condition!
Junior had (and still has) Pets at Home Guinea Pig Nuggets. On a daily basis, I'd sprinkle plain porridge oats on top of that. I also gave him lots of the Boredom Breakers Naturals Mixed Herbs (which contain parsley, mint etc). Because Junior was such a picky eater, I'd go with whatever he wanted as far as veggies was concerned. That meant a lot of lettuce, cabbage, parsley, cucumber, broccoli - the green veggies really. Ocasionally he'd pick at some red bell pepper or tomato, but that was it. He also had constant access to hay (as do all my piggies anyway) and I'd get him out on the grass whenever I could.
Then, all of a sudden, he started growing and putting on weight. He's six months old now, and could still pass for a three month old piggy. I suppose he'll always be small. He was one of five when he was born - were these two from a big litter?
The Boredom Breakers Naturals range also do Fenugreek Munchies (which are like little nuggets) which is a natural herb that supposedly stimulates apetite! Might be worth a try :) Good luck with them both, they are lovely!
 
It could be that they are just going to be on the small side. If mum was young herself and gave birth to a litter of 4, then that might indicate that they may be of slender build. Twelve weeks old is still young though ... do you know how much they weighed when born?

Sometimes pigs all of a sudden grow and expand when young adults. If they are eating well and appear healthy, i.e. no hair loss or ravenous all the time, although piggies do eat most of the time, then I would have thought worms would be unlikely. I have not experienced a pig with worms, and thought it was quite rare for them to get worms as they don't eat meat.

How are things going?
 
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