Pointers Requested!!!

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chinniecrew

chinniecrew

<---chins in a jar
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
328
Location
CT
I had a pregnant chin who became HUGE, at least for her. Well, she gave birth to Quads--Z3, Z4, Z5, Z6--2 males and 2 females, all ebonies. Current weights range from 30-37, which are the smallest I've had. I was anxious when a chin had triplets, so Quads are freaking me out.

So here's the thing. I am trying to follow the advice of the baby FAQ. I couldn't find goat or calf's milk so had to settle for evaporated milk. As for the supplement, I can't find evaporated milk in a dry formula. I saw dry whole milk but was afraid to get it because I didn't want to screw with little digestive systems.

Also, I am AWFUL with a syringe, and went out and bought eye droppers, but most of it still ends up on me. :hair:

Please, any pointers?
 
The dried goat milk replacer can be found at a feed store. Mine only had huge quantites though, maybe you can order from a larger breeder?
 
I called our feed store but they didn't carry it.

Any thoughts on actually feeding the kits? I'm trying to do the drop on their lower lip but it seems they just rub their chin on my clothes and gone it is!!!
 
Hold the kit away from you so it can't rub the milk off on your clothes. When I start hand feeding a kit I put a drop of milk on the lip, then blow very gently at the kit's lips. Often after I do this the kit will lick its' lips with its' tongue. Getting a kit to lick lips is the first step to hand feeding in my opinion. After that kits seem to understand the liquid is edible and they like it.

Just be careful to feed very slowly in order to prevent milk from entering the kit's lungs.
 
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You can also find goats milk in the grocery store in the organic section. I just bought some powdered goats milk from Price Chopper.

Jessica
 
I actually did check out the organic section at the grocery store! I couldn't believe the feed store didn't have it.

I'll check out Price Chopper tomorrow and am going try the blowing on the lips when i rotate the kits in half an hour!!
 
Walmart 'super stores' carry the goats milk. I couldn't find it until NJ finally had 'super stores' in the area. Feed store that have stuff for cows/horse and such have the powder milk for goats, etc. If you are breeding, you need to have these things on hand. Before Walmart had the Super stores built in my area, I ordered a case of goat's milk on line
 
Found the goats milk at Price Chopper!!!! :dance3:

Curved eye droppers is another matter.
 
Well, after repeated attempts to hand feed, the littlest guy would not gain any weight. So I consulted with a breeder and ended up fostering the bigger two out to 2 other chins who had their kits in January.

24 hours later, I weighed the bunch. The two smallest had gained a bunch and the two fostered out either remained the same or lost a couple of grams.

The one that lost a couple of grams has been seen feeding from the foster mother. I'm hoping that, as the new environments have a shelf and the kits are suddenly climbing up the sides of the wall and exploring their new cage, its just a matter of running around too much. Has anyone else experienced this?

I had another girl that was pregnant and was hoping she would only have one kit so I could use her, but she had triplets today!! They all look huge compared to the quads, although the smallest triplet is 43 g. I've had 9 kits this year so far, and last year I had 12 total!!
 
I find 1ml syringes (without the needles of course) work great. as they get bigger and eat more I use bigger syringes. my biggest is 6ml once they really start eating eye droppers just don't seem to cut it anymore...
 
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