A problem associated with early weaning of piglets is a higher incidence of behavioural issues including belly directed behaviour. Two forms of belly directed behaviour are belly nosing and belly sucking. These two forms were observed in relation to tail biting and other oral-nasal behaviours in the grow-finish stage starting at weaning at 14 days of age. The peak of belly nosing was two weeks after weaning occurring 5% of the time, while belly sucking was less than 1% of the time throughout the pigs life. The finishing phase was the only time with tail biting present at 0.5% of the time which indicates it was weakly related with any other behaviours. As the motivations behind tail biting and belly nosing appear to be distinct, different management tools will be needed to control these behaviours.
Belly Nosing, Belly Suckling, and Tail Biting in Early Weaned Pigs (full article)
