A friend came over this afternoon to help me with the piglets and their needle teeth. Needle teeth grow in pairs on both sides and on the top and the bottom...eight in all. And they are sharp. The reason for removing them is to avoid nursing issues with momma. Obviously, the babies can bite pretty hard with these teeth and if they bug her enough, she'll push them off of her. In addition, we've already seem a few minor injuries on snouts from brothers and sisters biting each other while scrapping for a teat or playing with each other.
The needle teeth are small enough that we actually used a pair of toenail clippers to remove them. Just slide the tooth into the clippers and snap, off it comes. The baby squeals, but not from any true pain inflicted by cutting the teeth...moreso because she doesn't want to be held still with her mouth open (just like any other baby). While Ruby is a very tolerant momma, she does not like it when her babies are upset. And since we had to do this, we decided the safest plan was to remove the babies one or two at a time, take them outside of the pen, clip their teeth, and then return them to momma.
This worked for most of the babies. I think by the time we were reaching for number eight, Ruby had decided that we were unwelcome and had pushed her babies into the back corner of the shelter and was guarding them quite effectively. We decided that I could finish the last few over the next couple of days. This decision was reaffirmed when my friend told me of her experience being attacked by a sow. The sow grabbed her calf, pulled her over onto her back, and clamped immediately onto her neck, preparing to kill her. My friend was saved by her two brothers who beat the pig until she let go. With that very visual story in mind, I will be particularly cautious around my momma.
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