Built in Preg Indicator?? Opinions purty please..

[LibertyFarms]

This is Penelope, our registered former show girl, who just has to be the sweetest pig I have ever met....which, along with how purty she is, well and the fact that she "talks" to us, has earned her a probationary stint as a keeper


Originally we were going to put her in with our pasture pigs and our GOS boar...but then the reality sank in that our youngest would be of pig showing age next year which meant we would be needing to buy at least 3 show pigs After researching the outrageous cost of pig AI, we managed to find a pretty nice registered boar we could take her to. We thought she would be in heat on April 15th, so we took her to the boar on the 13th and she stayed there for about 5 days. The boar's owner would put the boar with her 2 times a day, and she only "stood" for a second, which made him think we had missed her heat.

So, last week we got her ready for her next big date and even dropped her off early. She managed to escape her pen and get in with the boar on two separate occasions, so the owner eventually just let them have 24/7 access up till we picked her up last night. However, the owner who has bred pigs for a long time, said he has checked her for "standing" by grabbing her flank and pushing on her back and she doesn't ever "lock up" like every other gilt he's known would do if they are in standing heat. He said he's never seen anything like her.

I just got my first good look at her today and it seems like her "pointy thing" is sticking straight out...



And do I possibly detect some change in her udder?


And if these changes indicate pregnancy, does this mean that she was more likely bred the first time we took her in April, or last week? April is when we were hoping to have her bred so the piglets would be the right age at show time

Please let me know if y'all think I just have a horrible case of wishful thinking or not Oh, and sorry for the horrible dark, fuzzy pictures...
Rya

[jerseyrose]

I went back to the article ( FOUND IN the post- blood draw) and it should be pointing UP towards the tail. Your girl looks to be pointing straight out or even down ( sorry). Now I might be wrong because I am no expert. Does she ever show heat signs that you can rely on? My girl is a monster just before coming in and destroys her water continually and then in a few days she is enamored with ME . I know she is bred now because of the absence of these wonderful qualities since I helped the boar get the job done in late March. She is pointing up also.

[pubwvj]

Not pregnant. The clitoral hood points up as pregnancy advances due to the weight of the fetuses. See photo:

sugarmtnfarm.com/pregnancy-indicator/

We find this very reliable across many, many hundreds of pregnancies in hundreds of sows.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop

Check out our Kickstarting the Butcher Shop project at:

[RachelK]

If she is pregnant, and only about a month or so into it I don't think you could tell by looking. Later on and as the piglets get heavier it would be easier to tell.