Weight gain

[Rebecca01]

Hi all
One of my girls felt extra round today when she was having her brush! I have been trying to weigh in regularly since they had to have a veggie break.
For context, she is about 5 months old and has always been a bit bigger than her sister. I may be being paranoid, as last time we thought she was just a fatty she ended up surprising us with two babies (pregnant before she came to me)
I don’t weigh at the same time each day so this may also factor in, and she is still running when I put the hay etc in and eating. They have sligjtly over a half cup of pellets per day between 4 of them, but I do Chuck in an extra handful or so of a night to account for the very little babies needs. Lots of hay and only small amounts of veggies at the mo are we are getting back into them after a break
Today she weighed around 870g, which is 40g more than she weighed a week ago.

She also put on about 40g the week before that!
Is she just putting on weight quicker now her body is recovered from the babies? I know she herself is still growing and sone piggies are just round but thought it worth an ask

 

[fluffysal]

Bumping your post

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all
One of my girls felt extra round today when she was having her brush! I have been trying to weigh in regularly since they had to have a veggie break.
For context, she is about 5 months old and has always been a bit bigger than her sister. I may be being paranoid, as last time we thought she was just a fatty she ended up surprising us with two babies (pregnant before she came to me)
I don’t weigh at the same time each day so this may also factor in, and she is still running when I put the hay etc in and eating. They have sligjtly over a half cup of pellets per day between 4 of them, but I do Chuck in an extra handful or so of a night to account for the very little babies needs. Lots of hay and only small amounts of veggies at the mo are we are getting back into them after a break
Today she weighed around 870g, which is 40g more than she weighed a week ago.

She also put on about 40g the week before that!
Is she just putting on weight quicker now her body is recovered from the babies? I know she herself is still growing and sone piggies are just round but thought it worth an ask

Hi

In order to assess the weight gain properly, can you please add this information. Keep in mind that we jump between lots of different thread on a daily basis.

- How long since your girl has given birth?
- She hasn't been with any boars over 3 weeks old and you have double-checked the gender of any babies?

 

[Rebecca01]

Hi

In order to assess the weight gain properly, can you please add this information. Keep in mind that we jump between lots of different thread on a daily basis.

- How long since your girl has given birth?
- She hasn't been with any boars over 3 weeks old and you have double-checked the gender of any babies?

The babies are about 6 and a half weeks old! I have double checked genders of all others in cage , and double checked on here and with the breeder I got my girls from and both babies AND cage mate are sows.
Her belly just felt unusually large so it made me check, but she is behaving absolutely fine

 

[Wiebke]

The babies are about 6 and a half weeks old! I have double checked genders of all others in cage , and double checked on here and with the breeder I got my girls from and both babies AND cage mate are sows.
Her belly just felt unusually large so it made me check, but she is behaving absolutely fine

Hi

Thank you. As long as the belly is not hard, this is about the time when getting the full nutrition all for herself has replenished the beleaguered bodily reserves and she has suddenly got extra to spare. Weight gains of up to 50g for 2-3 weeks are not unusual for this stage.

You are not the first one to panic. I have been there with my recently adopted Heilin who had a very small risk of being pregnant and suddenly decided to put on 150g of body weight in just three weeks and develop fat balls by her hips. It made for some very anxious weeks; especially when Heilin then stopped growing altogether for the next three months. Nevertheless, she reached her ideal size and body weight and lived to 5 1/2 years; she passed away from a sudden heart attack while eating her good morning pellets at the start of August.

Just keep her on your steady diet and everything will right itself. The body is just reacting to the pressure it has been under and is doing a couple of big pendulum swings before it rebalances.

But there are no pregnancy or health worries. She just has a delayed massive growth spurt with the body trying to play catch up with normal development. It can also happen with young sows from a neglect background, which is where Heilin was from. Hers was just on the extreme side after a few weeks in good rescue and then home care.

That is why I asked you about how much after birth she is. You need to find the right context so you can interpret things correctly.