Things You'll Need
- Lice-preventing shampoo
- Heat lamp
- Iodine
- Rags
Instructions
Separate the sows from the boar.
Check the health of the sows and boars. Healthy parents help to assure healthy offspring. The vet can tell you when the young sows or "gilts" are ready to mate. Gilts need five to six months to become sexually mature.
Check the females for signs of estrus, or heat. The female will become twitchy and nervous and urinate frequently. Her vulva becomes swollen; she may have a mucosal discharge. She may try to mount other females. If you push down on her hindquarters, she will stand erect. Sows remain in heat for three days.
Present the boar to the sow. A healthy yearling boar services only 10 to 12 sows if presented in a group. However, if you bring the animals together one at a time, the same boar may service up to 24 sows.
Mate each sow a second time 24 hours after the first mating.
Bring the vet to the sows a month after the mating. The vet tests each sow for pregnancy and treats each pregnant sow for parasites and disease.
Wash each sow with a lice-preventing shampoo two weeks before the due date. Typically Russian boars give birth 113 days after conception.
Prepare a farrowing pen for each pregnant sow. This structure should be a clean pen with a special piglet rail. The piglet rail runs around the edge of the pen. It gives the piglets a place to go where their mother can't step on them or lay down on top of them. Place a heat lamp in one corner of the pen to keep the new piglets warm.
Place the sow in the farrowing pen two days before her due date, or about day 111. Watch the mother for signs of labor.
Catch each piglet as it is born. Wipe the navel of each piglet with iodine as it's born. Clean each piglet with a rag. Place the newborn under the warming light while the sow continues to give birth. Each Russian boar sow typically gives birth to three to six piglets.
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Remove the afterbirth when all the piglets have been born.
Place the newborn piglets next to their mother's teats for their first meal.