Feeding The Breeding Herd
Flushing
Flushing consists of feeding the sow more feed than is necessary for maintenance and ordinary functions for 2 or 3 weeks before breeding. This puts the sow in a positive energy state and usually increases the number of ovulated eggs, resulting in an increase in litter size. A level of 6 to 8 pounds per day of a properly-balanced gestation ration will usually suffice. Sows nursing large litters are fed at considerably higher levels, so the flushing amounts will need to be fed only from weaning to breeding. Sows normally show estrus within a week after weaning.
Gestation
Limit-feeding is important during gestation. The ration must be reduced immediately after breeding 4 or 5 pounds per day of a properly balanced gestation ration. If too much energy is fed at this time, embryonic mortality may result. Alternative feedstuffs may be used during gestation. Alfalfa hay and pasture can be used extensively, reducing feed costs. Other feedstuffs such as cooked potatoes, cooked beans, raw soybeans and bakery wastes also may be used, but care must be taken to balance the ration for all nutrients when substituting feedstuffs. should be 0.40 percent.
Lactation
Feeding Replacement Gilts
Feeding Boars
Annual Veterinary Visit For Small Mammals
Many owners of small mammals are surprised to learn that all pets need at least an annual checkup. Exotic pet veterinarians typically recommend check-ups at least once a year for young, healthy pets and twice a year for geriatric animals. During a check-up your veterinarian may recommend diagnostic testing, including blood testing, fecal analysis, microbiological testing, and radiography. While most of diagnostic tests can be performed on awake animals, depending on the species and temperament of the pet, some exotic pet veterinarians recommend performing these tests under short-acting gas anesthesia.
What Is Vitamin C And Why Is It So Important
Vitamin C is found in many different foods but predominantly fruit and vegetables. It is essential for the creation of a substance called collagen, which is sort of like a glue which holds the body together. As collagen is found in every part of the body, a vitamin C deficiency will affect all the body systems.
Why Do Guinea Pigs Need to Eat Vitamin C?
Most animals can synthesise their own vitamin C by combining different compounds and nutrients in their body. These animals dont need it in their food and will do fine if there is a shortage of foods containing vitamin C. Guinea Pigs, like people and primates,cannot synthesise their own vitamin C dueto a gene mutation. They NEED it in their diet just like we do.
Vitamin C is found in leafy green vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, parsley, and kale. There are also large amounts in tomatoes, bell peppers , broccoli and, if youre out in the garden, dandelion leaves
Guinea pig food also has added vitamin C. This degrades over time, leading to the amount in the food reducing. To help keep the food as fresh as possible it is recommended to keep food bags sealed shut though this may still not affect the amount of vitamin C. As such it is always better to buy a new bag of food every three months. Most hay does not contain significant levels of vitamin C.
Vitamin C Deficiency Causes Scurvy
Symptoms of Scurvy
- Immunosuppression, so they pick up infections easier
The Link Between the Novel Coronavirus and Scurvy. What Can be Done?
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What You Shouldnt Feed To Your Pig
Any meat products: includes pies, sausage rolls, bacon and cheese rolls, pizza, salami and other delicatessen meats and table scraps without proper cooking and screening.
Any carcass or part of a carcass of any mammal or bird . This includes any meat blood, offal, hide or feathers. Pigs that feed on carcasses are also at risk of contracting diseases that are contagious to humans.
Any fish products and bones.
The excreta of any mammal or bird
Any substance that has come into contact with a prohibited substance via collection, storage or transport in a contaminated container, such as meat trays and take away food containers.
Household, commercial or industrial waste, which includes restaurant waste that hasnt been properly cooked and screened.
Do Dogs Need Vitamin Supplements
Your dog gets his vitamins from dog food. Commercial dog food diets labeled complete and balanced are specially formulated to contain all of the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients your dog needs.
Foods catered toward different life stages, like puppy food, adult dog food, and senior dog food, contain different levels of certain vitamins, depending on the requirements of that life stage. This is especially important for large breed puppy foods, as these breeds can develop diseases, such as hip dysplasia, if their food contains vitamins and minerals, like calcium, that make them grow too quickly.
Dogs fed an appropriate commercial diet should not require vitamin supplements unless recommended otherwise by a veterinarian. Dogs fed a homemade diet, on the other hand, may require supplements to ensure that they are getting enough vitamins with their meals. However, these vitamins should be given to match the diet, according to veterinary nutritionist Susan Wynn, DVM. Simply feeding these dogs a vitamin with dinner is not enough.
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What Nutritions Do Pigs Need Farming For Success
Feed is the biggest cost factor in pig production and can amount to 60 to 80 % of the total cost of production. It is essential to give pigs the right amount of nutrition to flourish in your farming business. Starting from when they are weaned to fully grown pigs What Nutritions do Pigs Need Farming for Success
Fresh Vegetables And Fruit
In addition to the hay and pellets, a variety of fresh vegetables and some fruits should be offered daily. Leafy greens should make up the bulk of the vegetable supplementation. Fruits and other vegetables can be offered in small quantities. Avoid iceberg as it has very little nutritional value. Good choices include kale, spinach, turnip greens, parsley, romaine lettuce, and dandelion greens. Avoid or limit cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, bok choy, and other cruciferous vegetables as they can lead to gas production in the digestive tract. Also, avoid starchy vegetables such as potatoes. Carrots, carrot tops, green and red bell peppers, apple, apricots, bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, oranges, strawberries, and tomatoes can also be fed. If you have a guaranteed pesticide-free source, grass, dandelions, clover, and chickweed can also be offered, especially new growth which is tender and the most nutritious.
Any greens, vegetables, or fruits should be introduced gradually or a digestive upset may result.
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Why Guinea Pigs Need Vitamin C
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient that is used in the repair of tissue and prevention of scurvy. It also plays a key part in maintaining and boosting the immune system.
Unfortunately, Guinea pigs are unable to form their own ascorbic acid naturally, so it is important to supplement their diets with Vitamin C to keep them fit and healthy and help them fight off infections and recover from scrapes and cuts.
What Happens When They Dont Get Vitamin C
In Skinny Pigs, Vitamin C is required for making Collagen. Collagen is required for your Pet to have healthy blood vessels and strong bones. Collagen also aids in healing wounds and scratches that your Guinea Pig may be able to.
Vitamin C is required for making collagen. Collagen is required for healthy blood vessels, the proper formation of bones, and wound healing. Deficiency results in fragile blood vessels, hemorrhages of the gums and tissues in the mouth, skin, muscles, and internal organ surfaces. A Vitamin Deficiency results in fragile blood vessels, bleeding from the gums and tissue in the mouth, skin, and internal organ surfaces. It can also cause abnormal cartilage and bone formation. This can cause them discomfort and lead to painful swelling of joints and cause mobility issues.
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Is There Anything I Can Do If My Guinea Pig Is Pregnant
If your guinea pig is pregnant, and youre worried about what to do, then you should seek the help of a qualified veterinarian such as our vets at The Exotic Animal Hospital of Orlando. For younger guinea pigs, pregnancy is not a huge problem since their pelvis can enable them to give birth naturally. However, each pregnancy is different and will have its own risks. If your guinea pig is under six months, then they should not be bred again for a while for precautionary reasons.
On the other hand, an older guinea pig pelvis can fuse together, which will make it difficult or even impossible for them to have babies naturally. If you have an older guinea pig and you are worried this is the case, please talk to a qualified veterinarian.
Growing Pigs Need 25% Salt In Their Ration
Growing pigs, like feeder pigs, need to have .25% salt in their daily ration. Normally, this amount of salt is already in the feed, since you would be buying premixed pig feed.
If you are making your own pig feed, be sure you are including the right amounts of salt, since the rest of the diet that your pigs could be getting, pasture, vegetables, etc., are all low salt feed stuffs.
Grains and plant protein supplements are low in sodium and chloride, but the needs of the growing-finishing pig can be met by adding .25 percent salt to the diet.
Since growing pigs are only able to perform at their genetic best when they are managed appropriately, having their feed correctly formulated will directly affect your results, as evidenced by the pigs growth rate.
Resources:
Swine Nutrition GuideMinerals, North Carolina State Swine Extension, I used the section on salt for the stats above
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The Need For Minerals In The Nutrition Of Pigs
A pig cannot live without minerals. The fact is that a lot depends on their presence, including the state of the animals health. Minerals are extremely important for the normal formation of bone and cartilage, therefore it is necessary to introduce them into the diet of young animals.In addition, the mineral components help in the process of hematopoiesis, as well as in the assimilation of the protein, which is responsible for increasing the mass of the pig. If there are enough minerals in the diet, you will most likely have to face serious disorders in the cardiac or nervous system.
The female is most sensitive to the lack of minerals in her diet, as she builds up weight faster than males. Particular attention should be paid to the nutrition of the animal and the composition of the menu in the first months after birth. The fact is that at this stage there is a rapid jump in growth and weight gain, which must be maintained with the help of complexes of minerals and vitamin supplements.
How to understand that there are not enough minerals in the diet? If a mistake has been made in the preparation of the diet, the following symptoms will appear:
- young animals may develop abnormalities in the structure of bones, develop rickets
- females often have problems with childbirth.
Grower Feed And Commercial Feed
Grower feeds are a type of food that farmers can use to get animals to gain as much weight as possible in a short time frame. Pigs are animals that can grow faster, but they need the right feed to fulfill their potential.
On average, pigs can gain 1.5 to 1.7 pounds a day until they reach 110 pounds. They can eat as much as 5% of their body weight during the first years of their lives. As they get older, they can gain as much as 2 lbs a day.
You can introduce grower feed once a pig is 12 weeks old. Its a cost-effective way to feed swine while achieving fast growth for meat production.
Grower feed provides a mix of protein and fat to help pigs gain weight fast. Its low in fibers and usually includes a lysine supplement to promote muscle development. Youll often find ingredients like sorghum and soybean because of their high protein supplement, and some grower feed manufacturers use additional protein supplements.
Commercial feed is somewhat similar to grower feed. However, the main priority is to offer an affordable feed that farmers can use to raise pigs and offer reasonably-priced meat to consumers.
This feed supports healthy growth, but pigs wont gain weight as quickly as they can with grower feed. Commercial feed typically uses a mix of ground corn and soybean.
You might find sorghum and other grains, but corn remains the main source of energy since its more affordable.
On average, farm pigs eat 6 8 pounds of feed each day.
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Do Hamsters Need Vitamin Drops
A hamster that has a balanced diet, a good mix of seeds, fresh vegetables, dried herbs and occasionally nuts and fruits, does not need vitamin drops, it gets its daily dose of vitamins from its food. However, if the vet detects a vitamin C deficiency in your hamster, you can administer it by injection or increase its ration of foods that contain more vitamin C, until it regains its balance
Fixing Vitamin D Deficiency
Joe Vansickle | Feb 15, 2012
Humans enjoy a select group of foods and supplements, as well as sunlight, to help boost vitamin D levels to ensure health and wellness. But for todays pigs, meeting those nutritional needs is much more complex.
For starters, pigs receive only a little vitamin D, a fat-soluble substance needed for growth and bone development, from sows colostrum, and almost none from sows milk, explains Steve Henry, DVM, Abilene Animal Hospital.
Henry and colleagues at the Abilene Animal Hospital made these discoveries while investigating structural problems in pigs diagnosed with periweaning failure-to-thrive syndrome .
Turns out these pigs are candidates for rickets along with health issues that impede their growth and performance. Some of these pigs heal naturally, but several in the groups the clinic has tested over time have had skeletal problems.
Clinic swine veterinarian Megan Potter made a startling discovery: serum concentrations of vitamin D levels in the PFTS piglets ranged from almost undetectable levels up to about 3 nanograms/ml. of blood. She and associates also bled pigs from 10 herds of normal, 3-week-old pigs and learned the readings were the same as those of the PFTS pigs. This suggested vitamin D deficiency may be widespread.
Research Trial
Limited Progress
Product Development
Why Now?
Important First Step
Oral supplementation is an important first step in producing normal weaned pigs that have an opportunity to thrive.
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Improved Adg And Adfi Of Nursery Pigs
The results demonstrated that overall ADG and gain to feed ratio increased quadratically , while overall ADFI tended to increase linearly as dietary B vitamins increased. The loin depth, loin eye area, and lean gain improved with increasing B vitamin levels . The researchers therefore conclude that increasing supplementation of VP beyond NRC requirement estimates improved ADG and ADFI of nursery pigs while supplementing a subset of 5 B vitamins improved growth performance and carcass characteristics of grower to finisher pigs.
What Do Pigs Eat
In the wild, hogs have access to a more diverse diet and can get the nutritional requirements they require. They forage for their food and eat naturally.
Theyre omnivorous animals that eat grass, roots, fruits, mushrooms, insects, eggs, and small mammals. Wild hogs dont have access to feed or slop.
What does a pig eat on a farm? On a farm, its different. Farm pigs mostly eat feed. This is a way for pigs to reach butcher weight quickly.
Typically, you should feed pigs a diet consisting of corn with soy or alfalfa through to finishing, the last one to two months. From there, with certain breeds, such as the Mangalitsa pig, you can feed them barley to improve the fat quality and the meat marbling.
Most pig feed includes a mix of:
- Corn
- Grains
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Pigs Can Get Salt From Their Environment
Pigs can get salt from their environment, through natural salts in the dirt or from drinking saline water, which could be the only water available for livestock in certain locations, usually coastal areas.
Saline water sources will put too much total salt in your pigs diet. If you live in an area that has saline water as the normal livestock water source, you must adjust the feed formulation for your pigs!
Pigs, just like us, drink extra water after eating salty foods, so our body wash out the extra salt. The catch is that if you are in an area with saline water, drinking extra water is adding extra salt! The opposite of what your pigs need.
Get help to have your feed adjusted to accommodate your water source. Look to an animal nutritionist or veterinarian to help you get the salt in your pigs diet at the right level.
If you want to read more about saline water and pigs, read How much salt should you add in your pigs diet?, it has a whole section on the challenges dealing with raising pigs in areas with saline water sources.
Give Your Pigs A Complete Feed To Ensure Appropriate Salt Intake
So, how do you make sure that your growing pigs are getting enough salt, everyday? Easy, give them a complete feed with the appropriate amount of salt already included.
If you are still not confident that your pigs are getting enough salt and other minerals, give them a salt block and a mineral block and see if they spend time licking either one.
The purpose of the blocks is to make additional salt and minerals available on demand to your pigs. Your job is to provide what they need, theyll eat it if they need it.
If they ignore it or play with the blocks, youll know they dont really need additional minerals and salt in their diet.
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