mini pigs, whats the earliest i can take the babies away?

[spish]

my sow had a nest of 6 piglets 4 weeks ago, sadly one died at 2 days old but the other 5 are doing so well.
even though they are eating starter food for piglets, and all the scraps mum gets, they are still demanding a lot of milk off mum, and she's getting so thin im extremely worried. you can see her hip bones and her skin is just hanging off her

(( we upped her food intake right after the birth (to twice as much as normal) then upped it again when the piglets were a week old and started nibbling at mums food.

she's getting around 5kg worth of feed a day (two buckets normal mini pig food, 1 bucket starter food for piglets, then table scraps from us, 4 sets of neighbours, and the cyclists/walkers that come by every day bring food too)....and thats a blooming lot for such a small pig!
shes been wormed so thats not he problem, i think its just the demand from the piglets. her last nest she only had 3 so it wasnt so hard on her...

so what id like to do is take piglets away to raise so mum can have a rest and regain weight.

at what age can i do this please? i waited until they were 10 weeks old last time but feel i waited way too long and they could have gone a lot sooner?

 

[arabianequine]

Just like a puppy....you can at 4 weeks but they will need work from people to feed them. I would suggest waiting till 6-8 weeks. If there is no problems with mom hurting them or anything.

They are still learning stuff from mom and can't eat on their own fully yet. 8 weeks is best.

 

[spish]

thanks for taking the time to reply but i don,t think i can leave it another 4 weeks...mum really seems to be suffering, she's like a walking skeleton.
i also posted on back yard herds and they said 4 weeks is fine to take the babies if they are eating alone (which these are as well as suckling mum)

im really torn as to what to do here. i have the special started crumbs/pellets for piglets 1 to 12 weeks....they eat that fine at the moment. would they need replacement milk too or is water fine?

what if i took 3 babies away and left mum with 2? would that help her out? or if i took the babies away in the day and put them back with her at night???

 

[BorderKelpie]

Could you suppliment the piglets but still leave them with mom? I have been known to give goat milk to nursig pups just to give Mama a hand. That way, they still get what they need from mom, she doesn't have to put as much effort into feeding and they get more socialized to humans. Seems like a win-win situation. Although, I know next to nothing about pigs.
Best wishes for your poor Mama piggie. Give her a hug for me, please.
I do love piggies.

 

[spish]

i have been supplimenting the babies with piglet food which they love, but they still suckle from mum, well actually they are sucking her dry the poor thing

if i knew i could give them a sort of replacement milk id take them away now and hand rear (i have 3 weeks vacation so could do it with no problems) but i cant find any info on what sort of replacement milk you can give mini pig piglets? i have kitten, puppy and goat available locally. or i can get raw milk from the fam up the road but thik that may be too rich?

 

[arabianequine]

When I get my piglets I raise for meat....I just start giving them store bought milk with the starter. They are a bit older but I think the fresh goat or the dairy milk from up the road would be just fine. I make a soupy slop mix bread with milk or the starter with milk.....you can even use a food processor and powderize the starter and mix with milk to make a slop, trust me they will love it.

 

[lasergrl]

If she were mine, I would free choice feed all of them a piglet grower food, for large pigs. I wouldnt mess with the mini pig food. It is designed for pigs that gain weight too fast. I would also give mom a liberal dose of ivermectin injection. She will likely be pretty wormy with the stress of farrowing. If you cannot give an injection (that would be best) you can give it orally.
BTW I have pulled babies at 3 days all the way up to 4 weeks for various reasons. They all took to pan feeding VERY well. You can absolutely seperate them now. Just pan feed them, you can mix some milk replacer with the pellets if they look like they need it but at 4 weeks they should do ok with just the pellets, moistened in water if needed.


* just saw that you can get the raw milk. If you want to leave babies with mom, free choice feed farm piglet food with milk mixed in, to mom and babies. And definately deworm. The milk would be a great way to add all that she needs and the babies will eat it too.