Baby piggy

Question
I have an orphaned 2 week old piglet - potbelly - How do I get this little baby to drink from a bottle and how much should I feed her?

Answer
It's actually better for baby to drink from a pan than a bottle. Piglets tend to inhale the liquids from a bottle, and that can cause pnemonia. Use a very shallow pan. Baby may make a mess the first few tries but will catch on quick.

Goats milk or sow replacement formula are the best choices. Offer the milk at room temperature or just slightly warm -- NOT HOT!!!  Just put her by the dish, she'll figure it out.

For now, let baby have as much as she wants to eat. Piglets should gain about 1 lb per week for the first few months. Offer her little bites of other foods. Some she may eat, like warm NOT HOT oatmeal, others she may just taste and spit out. That's ok, because she's just learning.

When she's about 4 weeks old, introduce her to Pot-bellied pig starter pellets. Put a few pellets in her milk. At each meal add more pellets, until her food is a thick mush, with about 1/4 cup pellets. Then, begin reducing the amount of milk on her food until it's just dry food.