When we (by ‘we’ I mean Sasha) decided to take the piglet in, we were afraid that he would have to be bottle fed, but fortunately he immediately took to slurping up formula from a bowl. The formula was a multi-animal milk replacer that we got from Farmer’s Feed and Seed.
The problem was, we couldn’t get him off the formula to start eating solid food, which would be a requirement for putting him back out with the other pigs. We figured it would only be a week or so before he started eating but with a bowl of pig food handy he’d scream for hours demanding milk.
So Sasha asked the world of Homestead Hogs what to do, and got this reply from Jerry:
Oh… another piglet with a well trained “Mom”.
Give him some hog food top dressed with milk replacer (clean water available also)…
I flat out guarantee, he will NOT starve to death with that bowl of food in there … He may (WILL) bitch loudly about mom changing his feed program, but he will figure it out as soon as he gets hungry enough.
Question is can you handle it? He will be screaming bloody murder….
The person who first said “Squealing like a stuck pig” didn’t just pick an animal at random. Lots of animals scream when they’re upset but I don’t think any other animal in the world screams like pig. The piglet (who we named “Kauai” at the request of Sasha’s sister) makes horrific blood curdling squeals and can keep it up until he’s satisfied.
But Jerry’s advice seems to be working. Kauai finally started eating pig food today.
On another note, cleaning up after a piglet is a whole lot of work. I heard that you can train a pig to a litter box but we quickly decided that he had to go out. Good thing it’s been so warm lately.
BnmnG 