We had given up on Tasha, she is one of AGH gilts and we had put her in with a boar in the hopes of a fall litter of piglets, but they were together for 4 months (pig gestation about 4 months) and they had been in separate pens for about 4 months with no sign of pregnancy. Now over last winter we had allowed Tasha to get too fat. AGH are prone to getting fat if you are not vigilant and over the very cold winter I had "pity fed" her way too much grain. (Pity feeding is when you are cold and feel bad about it and so overfeed your animals) As a result she had developed arthritis in her hocks (talk about pity! I'll never overfeed my pigs again). Well, last week Friday I was out feeding the pigs and noticed Tasha laying in an unusual spot next to a pile of brush. As I got closer I thought, "Gee, she is not looking good" and then I noticed a perfect and tiny piglet laying next to her belly shivering. ONE PIGLET! "Yes, My sow just had a litter of piglet." No one says that because one piglet is a pretty rare thing. I checked carefully around and he was pretty brand spanking new. There was no sign of others just him. I used a small handful of grain to get Tasha up and into the pen, made a nice deep nest of clean dry straw and set up a heat lamp, in an hour baby Sasha was happily snuggled next to mom toasty warm. We are not sure if the super low cal diet impacted the size of the litter or if her obesity was a factor, but as an only piglet Sasha seems pretty content.
