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weaning my piglet

22 9:16:19

Question
I got my piglet at two weeks of age from a local farmer because she had a serious wound on her shoulder that was grossly infected. The skin was coming apart from the wound. It stank and had a whiteish coating on the meat underneath. She also had a bad wound on her head was under weight (half the size of her litter mates)and her ribs were starting to show.

I paid for her and brought her home and gave her bath. I began cleaning the wounds and found the one on her head went to her scalp, so careful cleaning and disinfecting for that one and for the shoulder I packed it with sterile gauze soaked in Epsom salt water and kept it covered with a bandage. I changed all of that three times a day. In one one weeks time the foul smell got better and the whiteish coating began to come off and away with the use of the debriding agent. I was able to decern three holes in her meat where her mother must have bitten her during the birth and cleaning process. These holes had more foul smelling and rotten meat and discharge, but the skin had begun to reattach itself on the lower portion of the wound and the scalp wound has healed nicely. I also started "Tilda" on a soluble antibiotic in her milk due to the deep wound rot form the three holes. Last week end that nasty stuff came out all on its on and I made sure to cleanse the wounds well and apply antibiotic oniment after that several times a day. Today, Tilda is about 12 lbs maybe 15 she's pretty hefty (she weighed 3 when I got her). Her wounds have a small scab over the shoulder and will leave a long slightly curved scar. Her appetite is HUGE and she feeds several times through out the day and night. Now that I know she is going to survive (she was going to die if left with her mother and the farmer)I need to know how and when to start weaning her. She poops a lot and pees a lot and her poop is a nice consistency if poop can have a nice consistency so I know she is not affected by scours. We feed unimilk replacer formula. her body is well defined and proportioned, nothing flabby or saggy and she is very loud and vocal if she doesn't get her milk right away. We keep her in the house at night (in a cage) and on good weather days she stays in a wire cage in our front yard with hay, clean water and sunshine and milk when she gets hungry. She is 5 weeks old and we have had her for 3 weeks. It is getting close to time when she would have naturally been weaned. I have never rescued a piglet before so I feel like for my first time I have done well. Tilda is a large breed meat pig with black skin and fur, and good tempered and doing well, and will not face the butcher's block. So my question is; What's next?

Answer
AMAZING!
You should be the one giving advice, you have done a GREAT job of rescuing this poor piggy!
5 weeks is an excellent time to wean a pig from milk.
Milk is not a perfect food.....it does not have enough fiber, iron, ore selinium that pigs need.
Take some milk and gradually crush  pig pellets in it.
If she refuses, you are using too many pellets.
Take baby steps, Mazuri or Champions (in the northeast) are great brands of feed. We would suggest potbellied pig feed because you are not wanting to put weight on the pig for market!
THANK YOU for saving this "little" piglet.
She will probably be 700# or more?
Farm pigs are totally loveable, now you need to find a vet who will spay her or I promise you will regret it as she chases you.......
Cheers,
Priscilla Valentine
valentinesperformingpigs.com