Nutritional management of breeding sows profoundly affects their welfare through its impact on body condition, reproductive success, and the welfare of their piglets.
Sow nutritional welfare involves a careful balance between managing body condition for reproductive performance and meeting the motivational needs of an animal with a strong drive to eat. Restricted gestation feeding, while necessary to prevent obesity-related farrowing problems, leaves sows in a state of chronic hunger - welfare-compromising given the intensity and persistence of the hunger drive in pigs. High-fiber diets that increase satiety while controlling energy intake represent a welfare advance that addresses the underlying behavioral need rather than simply restricting food quantity. Lactation nutrition failure creates a double welfare cost: sows in negative energy balance experience metabolic stress while producing milk, and their compromised nutritional state impairs the care they can provide to piglets.