Yesterday, shortly before sunset, our pregnant Guinea hog sow Cerridwen started nesting, panting, and acting restless. This morning she gave birth to TEN piglets, all alive and nursing. She did a great job! That's a big litter for a first-time mom in a breed where the average litter size is six.
Since American Guinea hogs are a critically endangered breed, I feel pretty good about our farm helping to boost the world population with such a nice big litter of healthy babies.
There are four girls and six boys. At least one boy and one girl have white feet like their mom.
The births are very easy, and the newborn piglets immediately get up and climb straight over to the nearest teat to start nursing, without any help. Amazing!
Cerridwen is being a great mom so far. She's alert when the babies squeak and is being careful not to squish any of them, but she doesn't mind if I handle the little ones, so long as I don't make them cry.
The babies all have strong, compact, warm little bodies, and shiny black fur. They are making almost no noise at all right now, but I expect that will change in a couple of days, once they start running around exploring.
Here's a video of the piggies, just a few minutes old:
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3 comments:
I love them. We have a GH sow too, but yours is an overachiever with 10!
Your new babies are just adorable! How fun.
Beautiful babies.
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