Seen a sow the other day and only half of her tits had milk in them. It was only her right side. Her left side was as empty ad they can be. Does this mean anything?? I know nothing about hogs and I was curious about it and figured someone on here would know. I've never seen one just divided like that. Thanks for any info.
I think if teats are not getting used, they dry up. If you notice when a baby nurses it "kneads" the mothers tummy and teats and that signals the brain to start producing milk. Piglets will go back to the same teat they have been using, even if you take them away from the teats and put them all on a different one, they'll all go right back to the teat they are familiar with.
Female hogs only produce milk for a few minutes and when she's ready, she gives a call to the brood that it's suppertime and they come and eat or go hungry.
I hope that explains it.
Nalajr
Yeah, her piglets are only feeding on one side of her. Nala explained it well, and it could be how she lays down for them. She might not roll all the way over to give them access.
Hum thats pretty interesting. Like I said I know nothing about hogs so thanks for the info I really appreciate it.
There's a show that was airing on either Discovery, Animal Planet or National Geographic about hogs. I happened to catch it one day, but darn if I can remember the name of it. It was really a fascinating show. Pigs are by far the smartest animal in the barnyard. They sit back and laugh at a dog being smart. On this show they had a project out at the university of Iowa where the AG school was working with PIGS to see how they remember and can process info. They set up a tv screen with a joystick attached that controlled a ball on the screen and the object was to move the joystick to the edge of the screen and when that happened a noise would sound and a door would open giving the hogs some treats. Once the pigs were shown how to do it by the human, it didn't take them very long at all to master it and get the treat each and every time no matter what side of the screen they changed it to.
After seeing that whole show, I was absolutely impressed with the abilities of the "lowly" hog. They deserve a heck of a lot of respect. I have also seen where they use them in France and Italy to find and root up Truffles, one of the most expensive foods in the world.
If you are ever going through the channels and see a show about hogs on one of those channels I mentioned, WATCH IT. It will give you a whole new respect for hogs, trust me.
Nalajr
My son killed a sow about a month ago like what your taliking about.Sows usualy lay down on there side for piglets for them to nurse.So only 1 side or not all get used.