Weight gain

[Netpon]

My little 7 week old boar is a bit better today, his poos aren't quite as watery so hopefully he's on the mend. He's loving the Critical Care stuff

How much weight would you expect him to gain on a daily or weekly basis? He's put on about 1 gram since Monday. He's really skinny (he only weighs 230g) so I want to make sure he's gaining enough weight to catch up to what he should be at this age.

Thank you!

 

[MerryPip]

1g is not a great deal!

A piggy can vary by a number of grams from day to day depending on whether they have a full bladder or not so I would expect him to be putting on a lot more. I know he's struggling with food etc but he should be putting on at least 10-15g a week at that age, and probably more. My boys all went up in weight very quickly from the age of 6 weeks.

Keep getting plenty of food into him. I am sure there is a guide on here somewhere about syringe feeding and gives an idea of how much he needs a day, it's more than you think. Also the recommended guide for amount of pellets for one pig per day will give you an idea how much he should be eating.

Try weighing him every day or two, if you do it at the same sort of time of day each time you weigh, it decreases the chance of variation due to his metabolism during the day. E.g. most of us weigh differently at 9am than 6pm!

 

[Wiebke]

Considering that your little one has had diarrhea this week, you can count yourself lucky that he has not lost any weight. Diarrhea/dehydration usually causes a quite dramatic weight loss.

Please wait until his poos have firmed up before VERY slowly introducing small quantities of veg, one by one, so his guts can get used to them. Make sure that he always has unlimited hay (should make up to 80% of the daily food intake to keep the guts balanced). If his poos are firming up, he can also have access to unlimited pellets (best in several portions, in case he pees into bowl).

Normal at this stage are between 10-30g per week; it can vary and will slow down eventually.