Creep feeding in the farrowing room is often practiced to ensure the transition to solid feed at weaning goes smoothly. This is important as weight loss and increased disease risk are often noted post-weaning due to the stressful transition. Even a limited amount of creep feed may result in an increased body weight at weaning, initiating the adaption of the gastro-intestinal tract to solid feed and encourage consumption of feed post-weaning. It is possible that the creep feeding benefits will be more evident with a later weaning age of 28 days. After being given creep feed for 7 days prior to weaning, no performance benefit was noted regardless of the initial weaning weight.
Weaning at 28 Days. Is Creep Feeding Beneficial (full article)
