Question about nipping baby teeth---UPDATE---I am so proud of myself!

[animalfarm]

Gosh I apologize if I upset you - that certainly wasn't my intention. Sometimes you just can't convey friendliness in emails - I was not trying to get at anyone.

All the best,

Liz

No one is upset. No apologies are needed although you have made an nice gesture. There is nothing wrong with your conveyance and you were never anything but friendly. I think the fault lies with me. So I want to cancel your apology and replace it with mine.

I do understand where you are coming from. When I read my post, I sounded like a snarky old bat. Some close to me might even say I am.

We are merely clarifying points in different situations that apply to us personally so that anyone that comes along can read through and pick out information to try for themselves in their particular situation or not.

 

[jhm47]

Guess I owe Cornish Heritage an apology. I was typing a response to her post and got called away on an accident call. Meant to say, "Whatever works for you is fine with me, but in my experience I'd still nip teeth.", or something like that, and got interrupted before I got finished.

FYI: When I raised pigs, we farrowed 24 sows at a time in a heated barn. They mostly all farrowed within 3 - 4 days, and since they were mostly Yorkshires and a few York X Landrace crosses, we had quite large litters. Some would have up to 18, and many times we weaned 12 - 14 per sow. We didn't have time to inspect each baby, and treat them for infections or injuries, so it was far easier to nip teeth and mostly eliminate that potential problem. We also "cross fostered" them from very large litters to smaller litters. However, this needed to be done very early in their lives, or the foster mother would sometimes kill them. As they got to 3 weeks, we would group several litters in a larger pen, and keep on doing that till they were all in one large pen. Weaned them at about 5 - 6 weeks, and immediately bred the sows back. We would also breed about 8 - 10 gilts at the same time so any of the older sows that didn't breed right away could be replaced.

Had pretty good success till the bottom fell out of the hog market. Made pretty good $$$ for many years, and practically paid off the farm during the good times. There was a reason they used to call hogs the mortgage lifters.

I miss pigs sometimes, and might get a few again when I retire. Right now, I just don't have the time or facilities.

Again, Cornish, I didn't mean to offend anyone, and will try to be more careful in the future.

 

[Hillsvale]

I think if I were running some of the huge herds that jhm47 was in the day I would certain understand why some would nip teeth... babies can be very competative for their food! with my little litters (Ginger had 8) I didn't see the need and to be honest the thought of that stuff scares me :/ . I can't even fathom the numbers that JHM47 had.

JHM47, it was not my intent either to offend... I just like these sorts of posts to keep going because you can learn so much and sometimes (what is now understood to be an unfinished thought for very good reason) they get carried of onto a different stream and then get out of hand and closed as a result... Thank you for rescuing people...

 

[jhm47]

Actually, my little herd of pigs was small, compared to some of my neighbors. Many of them had 500+ sows, and they farrowed them 2+ times a year. In fact, I have a cousin who has 80,000 sows in various locations (that's NOT a misprint). I can't begin to figure why anyone would want an operation like that, but to each his own. He also takes the resulting pigs to finished weight. Just imagine the amount of feed that many mouths would require. I guess he has a contract with one of the big packing companies, and his price is locked in on a sliding scale that varies with the cost of feed and several other factors. Not anything that I'd want to be involved with.

Now, the huge operations are the only ones who still raise hogs. I can only think of one neighbor who still has any, and he's got a very small operation, more like a hobby (probably a dozen sows or so). We buy a pig from him from time to time for a change of pace from our home-grown beef. He sells pigs to many others, and has a waiting list for them. Which reminds me, we need another one soon to fill in till our next steer is ready for slaughter.

 

[Hillsvale]

****! oops, am I allowed to say that.

 

[Royd Wood]

Oh my goodness! Why do they want them tuskless? Don't the tusks grow back? I always thought they did but maybe I am wrong?!

I'm sorry but I just don't get folks sometimes. The whole idea of raising heritage breeds is that they are heritage breeds - i.e. VERY different from the commercial breeds out there. Yes you do have to have to respect these large boars but if raised correctly they are gentle giants.

As I write this I am trying to think how in the world you will remove these tusks. Our son has taken them out of a skull/jaw before & there is more of the tusk inside than what you can see on the outside. PLUS they curve up - they are NOT straight. If you snap 'em off then you will still have left two thirds of the tusk inside. Curious to see how this goes. We have sold a lot of Large Blacks but have never been asked to do this. In fact when folks come to look at pigs we do show them the big boars tusks but also show them how they just roll over for a belly scratch.

Please let us know how you get on with this,

Liz

Changed my mind on this one Liz and not going to do tusks for someone else. In other words the piglets will be sold as is
My big guy has his and we have no probs because he is as you say a gentle giant.
Couldn't see me bringing myself to doing the deed anyway

 

[elevan]

Folks - The OP has a POT BELLY PIG (PET), not a terminal animal, nor a full sized hog.

 

[Royd Wood]

Folks - The OP has a POT BELLY PIG (PET), not a terminal animal, nor a full sized hog.

Elvan TEETH ARE TEETH and pot bellies are PIGS

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Hey folks,

Thanks for all your nice replies I apologize for the delay in replying- just got back from an 8 day trip to California picking up our new herd of St Croix sheep.

SO glad to hear Royd that you are not going to be taking on the job of detusking those boars - Phew!

Happy pig raising everyone even in this cooler weather.

Liz