How to Raise Orphan Piglets

Whether you are adopting a piglet to raise as a pet or for profit, you must follow several steps to ensure that your piglet lives a healthy and comfortable life. According to the Forgotten Angels Rescue and Education Center website, about 25% to 40% of pet pigs are ultimately abandoned, abused or given to sanctuaries when their owners decide that they are too difficult to raise. To overcome this outcome, groups such as Pigs As Pets Association are dedicated to providing potential caretakers with the correct and proper information about raising piglets.

Things You'll Need

  • Heat lamp or pad
  • Blankets
  • Hay
  • Water
  • Sow milk
  • Goats milk
  • Pig feed
  • Baby rice cereal
  • Bowl
  • Vegetables
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Instructions

    • 1

      Use a heat lamp or heat pad to keep newborn piglets warm since they cannot create their own warmth. Piglets should be kept in an environment that has a temperature between 85 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, according to The Pig Site website.

    • 2

      Provide a shelter to protect your piglets from the sun and rain. In the shelter, have blankets and hay available so they can build warm nests for sleeping. Since pigs cannot sweat, a water source must be available at all times in order for the pigs to cool off. Use a kiddie pool filled with water or create a mud hole using a water hose. A mud hole will also be beneficial because the pigs can use the mud to protect themselves from sunburn.

    • 3

      Feed piglets a sow's milk replacer, available at animal health stores, according to The Pig Site website. Alternative milk sources include goat's milk replacer or watered-down condensed milk. Do not use cow's milk because piglets will have trouble digesting it. For the first few days of a piglet's life, feed the milk using a baby bottle, then use a bowl. Piglets should be fed milk every three or four hours for the first few days. Between days seven and ten, introduce the piglets to solid food by adding baby rice cereal to their milk.

    • 4

      Wean piglets off milk when they reach 12 to 14 pounds, which is usually when they are about 28 days old. Up until a piglet is five months old, they should be fed 3/4 cup of pig food pellets three times a day and from age six months and up, feed them vegetables throughout the day and one cup of pellets in the morning and evening, according to the Forgotten Angels Rescue and Education Center website. Always have a bowl of water available. Pigs should drink one gallon every day per 100 pounds of body weight, states the FAREC website.

    • 5

      Vaccinate your piglets following the FAREC's vaccination chart. Vaccinations for diseases such as Bordetella, Erysipelas, Pasturella, Mycoplasma, Deworm and 6-way Lepto should be repeated every 6 months if the piglet is around other pigs and yearly if they are isolated.

    • 6

      Neuter boars between four and eight weeks old and spay females when they are four months old or when they reach 15 pounds, according to the FAREC website.