Right after weaning, the best formula in the world means very little if piglets do not eat it. That may sound obvious, yet many nursery diets are still built more to satisfy the formulator or the client than the pig. We admire nutrient balance, ideal ratios and neat ingredient matrices, while the newly weaned piglet is simply deciding whether to walk to the feeder and take another mouthful.
In the first days after weaning, intake drives almost everything: gut fill, enzyme stimulation, villus maintenance, energy supply and the piglet’s willingness to keep eating. When intake collapses, gut function follows. Then we start calling for more additives, more medication, or a reformulation, when the real problem started with too little feed consumed too soon.
