The Relationship between Creep Feeding Behavior of Piglets and Adaptation to Weaning: Effect of Diet Quality

Individual variation in creep feed intake and its relation to adaptation to weaning were studied in piglets weaned at 4 wk of age. The animals received either a low-complexity creep-starter diet based on corn, barley and soybean meal (12 litters), or a high-complexity , medicated, commercial diet without soybean meal (12 litters). Diets were fed as creep feed during the 2 wk before weaning, and as the sole diet during the 2 wk after weaning. Creep feeding behavior of piglets was monitored by video recording. Pigs fed the high-complexity diet consumed more creep feed (P \u3c 0.05), tended to gain more during the week before weaning (P \u3c 0.10), and converted feed more efficiently and gained more weight in the 2 wk after weaning (P \u3c 0.01). Use of creep feed varied greatly among individual littermates. Multiple regression analysis showed that on the high-complexity diet, pigs that used creep feed more than their littermates tended to be those with low gains in weeks 1-3 after birth (P \u3c 0.001), and tended to gain more weight during the week before and during the 2 wk after weaning (P \u3c 0.01). The trends were consistent but weaker with the low-complexity diet. However, predictive power was low, with creep feeding accounting for only 4% of individual variation in post-weaning gain on the high-complexity diet and 1% on the low. Regardless of diet quality, therefore, creep feeding remained highly variable and only weakly related to weight gains during the 2 wk after weaning