Fifty-four sows and their litters were used to determine the effects that piglet diet and the ability of the sow to control contact with her litter would have on sow and piglet performance. Sows were either assigned to a confined or sow-controlled housing system. The piglets were fed either a standard diet or a high-complexity diet, which resulted in four possible treatment combinations. Confined housing kept the sow and her litter together, while sow-controlled housing allowed the sow to leave her piglets whenever she wanted. The two diet treatments were a standard diet, which is similar to what is typically fed to weanlings, and the high-complexity diet was divided into three phases throughout the experiment and was higher in protein and fat content. The sows’ and piglets’ were weighed, as were their feeders, to determine gains and feed consumption. The weaning-to-oestrus interval was recorded for the sows. The piglets were weaned from the sow at 28 days of age and the study concluded at 49 days of age. Prior to weaning piglets that were fed the high-complexity diet consumed more creep feed than did piglets on the standard diet. By day 41, the piglets on the standard diet weighed the same as those fed the high-complexity diet, which is likely due to the piglets fed high-complexity diet being switched to the standard diet 10 days before the completion of the experiment. Sows housed in the sow-controlled pens had a 10% decrease in nursing frequency, which resulted in the piglets assigned to this treatment consuming 69% more solid feed. Despite the increase in creep feed consumption by the piglets on the sow-controlled system, they still gained less weight than piglets in the confined housing treatment. After weaning, piglets from the sow-controlled housing system ate more feed and showed a reduction in the amount of weight they lost. This was not enough to compensate for the lower weight gains seen before weaning, thus piglets in the confined housing treatment weighed more at the end of the study. There was a strong linear correlation between the amount of time the sow spent away from here piglets with nursing frequency, and piglet feed consumption prior to weaning. There was also a weak linear relationship with sow feed intake and weight loss and piglet weight gains during the week following weaning. The housing treatments did not have an affect on the weaning-to-oestrus interval.