An artificial sow to investigate the behaviour of sucking piglets

A dummy sow and feeding system was developed to rear piglets from 24 hours of age to at least 3 weeks. The dummy sow incorporated particular features associated with the real sow which appeared to stimulate the development of normal feeding behaviour in the form of nuzzling and sucking. Good growth rates were finally achieved after modification of the milk feed composition. The apparatus was designed to investigate the suckling behaviour of piglets as it occurs on the real sow. Some further applications are outlined.