Pig Pregnancy

As you guys have read in my previous posts I haven't been 100% confident that Mumma pig was bred after I took her to have her romantic getaway with Henry the boar.

Well, those inclinations are now completely gone! I had originally found a post from Sugar Mountain Farms called the Pregnancy Indicator. You can go to the site and read up on it, it has quite a lot of comments as well that are a good read. In brief it talks about how these farmers have experienced a trend in their bred sows where the further along their pregnancy the more their vulva starts to point upwards.

I was very discouraged after reading this post as Mummas was not at all pointing upwards, it could have mayyybe passed for pointing straight out but to me it mostly looked like it was pointing down. She has only had one litter and only consisting of the two piglets so according to this post it should be noticeably facing upwards. I think the post from Sugar Mountain Farm is great and if you have a sow that shows in this way it would be very very handy!

A pigs gestation is 114 days or as most commonly spoken, 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days.

I took Mumma pig to her romantic getaway on April 27th and picked her up on May 12th.

If you are going by 114 days, her due date could be anywhere from August 19th - September 2nd.

If you are going by 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days its very similar at August 20th - September 3rd.

On Friday August 9th Steve noticed that Mummas teats were starting to swell (what a good farmer he is becoming!). They have over these passed few days only continued to enlarge.

Also any time that I enter the paddock she is rolling over for belly rubs before I even pet her, I'm assuming it's because her teats are sore and it feels good to have belly scratches.

I started writing this post yesterday and when I came home tonight Mumma was alone in the barn (very unusual as she is usually the leader) and then when I got her up and started cleaning the stalls she went outside on her own while all the other pigs made my job much harder then it has to be (typical). I also noticed that she had a bit of clear liquid around her vagina as well it was quite swollen, indicating the start of farrowing. But still, her 'pregnancy indicator' (vulva, or outside of her vagina) is still pointing down so I don't think this pregnancy indicator is going to work for her. She also now when I rub her belly is making this grunting noise which she makes while the piglets are nursing which makes me think she is in that mind set. I think we are close. Setting my alarm for 1am to do a night time check up on her!

The start of a filling 'milk rack'