Athena & Hercules' first litter!
Athena and Hercules are purebred juliana mini pigs. Athena stands at a whopping 10&1/2 inches tall and Hercules is a masculine 12 inches tall. She gave birth to 4 girls and one boy, all various shades of grey with small white tips or spots except for one all dark grey girl. Athena was so scared with this being her first litter she would only stop shaking when i scratched her chin or talked to her. With each birth she'd nudge the baby out of the crate at me as if to say "here you deal with this Im not done yet mom" so I was able to clean each baby off, tie off and sanitize umbical cords and set them in the basket until she told me she was ready. Every once in a while she would stand up and do some more nesting while taking a break from contractions and she would come and stick her nose in the basket and honk at her babies then flop back onto my lap for chin scratches and belly rubs as though that was all that she needed to make her labor easier. I felt such love from her knowing how much she wanted me there more so than most sows when they farrow. Once she was done delivering the last piglet she sniffed at the basket as if she was ready for them so I gave her her five little tiny babies and she immediately laid down and began honking at them and nursing. I waited a few more minutes to clean the afterbirth out of her crate and left her to bond with her babies. She didn't even allow her sister or jimmy near when she was farrowing but would freak out if I stood up or left her for even a moment. She's doing great today and Ive uploaded some pics to the piglets page for everyone to see!
