Nutrition: advice?: Mom+babies need alot, cagemate does not

[Rubio]

Our 4month old just had a litter of four piglets, four days ago. We want to make sure the mom and babies have steady access to Cavy Performance pellets, and the babies have alfalfa hay. But the mom's cagemate, another four month old female, seems to be getting a little chunky.

How would you all recommend controlling access to the food, so the mom and babies get what they need but our other pig gets less? I figured an obvious option would be to separate her for a couple weeks, but will that cause "group dynamics" problems for the herd when she's later re-introduced?

Many thanks,

[akstrohm]

I would switch to grass hay (all pigs need unlimited grass hay, although you can feed alfalfa as a treat) and Cavy Cuisine (once the Performance is gone). Then give the nursing mom and the babies veggies with extra calcium during lap time (i.e. parsley).