The first week of life is the highest welfare-risk period for piglets, with management decisions around colostrum access, temperature, and fostering having lifelong welfare consequences for individual animals.
First-week piglet welfare is determined by a cluster of management decisions that operate under conditions of significant time pressure and complexity. The failure of a piglet to access colostrum in the first 6 hours is almost always fatal; hypoglycemia and immune failure follow rapidly. Competition at the udder — particularly severe in large modern litters where piglet numbers exceed functional teats — creates a situation where the smallest, most vulnerable piglets are systematically excluded from the nutrition they need for survival. Stockperson skill in identifying compromised piglets, managing fostering appropriately, and ensuring adequate creep heating is the most critical determinant of first-week welfare outcomes. Routine procedures including teeth clipping and tail docking, performed without analgesia in the first days of life, add pain to an already demanding transition. The welfare case for selective rather than routine teeth clipping and for early provision of enrichment materials to reduce tail biting at source is increasingly supported by evidence.