286 Animal Husbandry 
463. Cooking the feed. — As a general practice, cooking food for 
swine is no longer regarded as profitable. In fact, cooking certain 
foods renders some of the nutrients less digestible. Cooking feeds 
for swine, however, has many advantages, chief of which are that 
it softens small and hard seeds; increases the succulence and to 
some extent the palatability of certain dry grains, such as peas and 
beans; reduces the water content of certain other feeds, such as 
roots and tubers, which contain more water than swine can econom- 
ically use; and renders foods more uniformly mixed. Further- 
more, cooked. foods do not sour so readily, and the hard grains or 
particles of feed become thoroughly softened. It is considered 
best to put a variety of foods into the cooker. 
464. Feeding the pigs. — At about three weeks of age, the pigs 
are likely to begin to nibble at their mother’s food, to bite at the 
grass, and perhaps try to root. This indicates that they are 
acquiring an appetite, and they should be encouraged to take food 
other than that supplied by the mother. Place a small trough in 
one corner of the lot or pen, and arrange a fence across the corner, 
so the sows cannot have access to it, but the young pigs can. 
Into this trough a little sweet milk may be poured three times 
daily. Do not provide more than the pigs will drink at once, and 
never leave the milk to sour in the trough, as digestive disorders 
and death are sure to follow. In‘a few days, replace the milk 
with a small amount of bran and shorts, scalded and made into 
a gruel. 
465. Weaning the pigs. — With pigs fed as suggested above, the 
weaning process is easy and simple. As the pigs learn to rely 
more on the extra food, the mother’s milk-producing food should 
be cut down so that she will not be in the height of her flow when 
the pigs are taken away. The age to wean pigs varies, but, as a 
general rule, it is safer to say the best age for weaning is between 
seven and ten weeks. 
