Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[frias]

Sorry not laughing about having to get up and do feeds but the thought of huge piglets in your dining room.

[Hilary B]

Once you are bottle feeding, they can be vERY difficult to persuade to take to solids! We bottle reared one once, she got very tame!
If you've got 2 bottle-babies together they will probably be fine in a stable or such by about 3 weeks old.

[petal]

me wants to bottle feed a piggie....

[Bramble-Poultry]

its hard going petal. they have had colustrum for 12 hours now, they are now on the proper sow replacement milk and the one saddleback boar has really gone into over drive. he really weighs quite a bit!

The trick we have found is that once he has had his fill, he MUST find a spot to pee, usually my tshirt or trousers.....

so we have developed a knack of as soon as he has finished, getting him wrapped in a towel and moving him back to his crate under the heat lamp!

It is quite sweet bottle feeding, and he loves to curl up on you after his feed, just cant see me doing it in 8 months time when he weighs 100kg+ and still wants to get on my lap!

He is very very hairy, but its more like a soft down at he moment so he is really cuddly, and dare i say it, when he comes out of his crate and from under the heat lamp - HE DOES SMELL OF BACON!

[jessmorris]

..apropos of absolutely nothing, and mostly because if I don't post this now I'll forget all about it (brain drain!)..there's a small poultry show in N Lancs/ N Yorks if anyone's interested. Its on a Friday night 25th Feb at Lower Westhouse village hall, off the A65 between Kirby Lonsdale and Ingleton. I went to their last show and they had only a few show cages but a lot of birds (especially for such a small venue!) - lots of game bantams, some d'uccles, dutch, Japanese bantams and masses of LF. They also have ducks.
Just thought I'd mention it, tho I think my nearest grapes are Penrith and on the Wyre so quite a distance.....
JM

[Hilary B]

Once bottle feeding is established, it's probably better to let him stand on his own 4 feet while he sucks. He will soon learn to come running at the sight of the bottle, and you can sit on a low chair and hold the bottle at his level, rather than have him on your lap.

[Glutton4...]

Once bottle feeding is established, it's probably better to let him stand on his own 4 feet while he sucks. He will soon learn to come running at the sight of the bottle, and you can sit on a low chair and hold the bottle at his level, rather than have him on your lap.

BUUUUUT - That's not nearly so much fun, Hilary!

[Hilary B]

Once bottle feeding is established, it's probably better to let him stand on his own 4 feet while he sucks. He will soon learn to come running at the sight of the bottle, and you can sit on a low chair and hold the bottle at his level, rather than have him on your lap.

BUUUUUT - That's not nearly so much fun, Hilary!

You mean it's not as much fun as getting piggy-wee all over your trousers? I HAVE bottle reared a pig (a sow, and she reared her own babies once she was full grown), and believe me, once they are no longer tiny, you do NOT want one on your lap!

[Glutton4...]

You mean it's not as much fun as getting piggy-wee all over your trousers? I HAVE bottle reared a pig (a sow, and she reared her own babies once she was full grown), and believe me, once they are no longer tiny, you do NOT want one on your lap!

I believe you, honest! Having never done it (I have bottle-fed rejected Lambs...), I'm guilty of looking at the 'aaaah' factor!

[petal]

can piglets wear nappies?

[petal]

me want put piglet in nappie and give it a dummy and put a little dress on it...................

[Glutton4...]

me want put piglet in nappie and give it a dummy and put a little dress on it...................

*slaps Petal!

Pull yerself together woman!!!!!!

[frias]

I used to do that to my cat. I was 5 at the time though.

[Glutton4...]

Just been down to see the 'Rowdies' and they are fighting - nasty little blighters. They were soooo sweet when they were hatched! They will be despatched and prepped next weekend. If any one wants one in the meantime, let me know.

[Nicos]

OMG!!!...I've just finished dry plucking our Marans male.

windy??...yup!...what a day to choose my first dry plucking!

I wanted to keep his lovely soft fluffy feathers and I read somewhere that wetting them in warm/hot water damages them. ...is that correct and have I just spent an hour fiddling about for nothing when a quick dunk would have made things so much easier????