Apple Juice To Nursing Female?

[EMSChins]

To those of you who have given the 1/2 unsweetened apple juice or cranberry juice and 1/2 water to help with milk production to a nursing female - how do you keep it away from the kits?

I have a set of triplets and for some reason this time this experienced mother has low milk production (yes, she has had a long rest in between litters but it is her first set of trips). I am supplementing the babies and have decided to try the apple juice thing to see if I can help boost her milk production but have never done the apple juice trick.

One of the babies is a determined little thing, she is 13 days old and still only 73 gms but able to clinb the cage to drink from the water bottle, the other two still ignore it. I can't imagine that the apple juice is good for a baby. It is organic with no added sugar but still...

Is it worth it or should I just pull the bottle of half juice/half water?

 

[threewingedfury]

At 13 days, I don't think the juice mixture is going to help mom at all. Her milk should be in if it's coming in.

 

[EMSChins]

She is producing some milk... just not enough to support three. I thought if I could get her drink more fluids it would help boost production - might be defective thinking but I thought it was worth a shot???

She is losing weight though - do you suggest that I just pull the babies and let her body recover? It is weird because she gained a ton of weight with the pregnancy, was fat and healthy, gave birth to three good weight babies, and then boom just started losing weight. She has never done that before so I am perplexed.

 

[threewingedfury]

She may not be able to support three kits at a time, at least not in this litter. Remember, each litter is different - I've had females do well with trips and then have a hard time nursing just one the next litter.

I would keep supplementing and rotating. Give mom the dry milk mixture which shouldn't hurt her. I just don't put much faith in apple juice to begin with, but when I do give it, it's for no more than 3-4 days. If it's going to work, it'll work then.

 

[RDZCRanch]

If any of my females aren't producing enough milk, I give them fresh, loose alfalfa. It's the only thing I've used that actually seems to make a difference. I make a ground up supplement for my females that includes alfalfa hay, powder goat's milk, oats, barley and equine senior and that offered once a day helps them keep weight on and also gives the babies something to attack.

How much cuttlebone are you giving her and how often?

 

[EMSChins]

I am supplementing and rotating, they have the dry mix in the cage and I even gave the mom a little bit of Dyne and tried to give CC and Lifeline which she fought like a crazy chick. I thought today oh what the heck the only thing I haven't tried is the applejuice even though it is against my better judgement because of the natural sugar content of it.

I guess I will just try to relax and see how it all plays out - I hate it when I can't control things! Guess I have the wrong hobby!

 

[RDZCRanch]

What all are you giving the mother? Can you give us a breakdown of what you're doing for her day to day? What's in the dry mix, how much you give her, etc.

 

[tunes]

Dyne is loaded with more sugar than the natural sugar in apple juice, especially since you dilute the apple juice with water. Try tasting Dyne. It's like candy.

I also will throw in some alfalfa to try and help mom produce more milk, but if she's 13 days out, then what she's got is what she's got. Either her milk has come in at this point or most likely it isn't going to get any better. I would continue rotating and hand feeding.

 

[EMSChins]

The mother is given Shoots Chinchilla pellets, there is always a mixture of fresh loose alfalfa (oxbow), fresh loose timothy (Kleenmama's), and orchard grass (oxbow) in the cage - replaced daily and I have increased the amount of alfalfa just prior to the birth of the babies. Every morning she is given a small amount of a supplement that I make up that I give to all of my show chins but it is basically oats, and a very small amount of show bloom and calf manna.

When her weight started to drop I started handfeeding critical care and lifeline mixture but after the first day she fought the handfeeding exceedingly hard and was completely stressed out by it. She is one of the few chins I have that does not like to be handled and I felt like giving her the cc and lifeline was stressing her out more than she needed to be. I was afraid that it would inpact her health further and cause her to reject her kits which she has not done thus far. I tried sprinkling the lifeline on her pellets but found that she stopped eating her pellets. I had a small sample of herbal supplement from Fuzzies Kingdom that I tried and she picked through that so may order more.

I also have the dry mix of baby cereal (oatmeal, rice), goat milk replacer, ground pellets in the cage for the babies but haven't been able to tell if she is eating any of that. I would say there i about 1/8 of a cup in the cage. I also hung a bottle of the diluted unsweetened apple juice today for her and have seen her drinking that.

There is half of a cuttle bone in the cge for her to chew on, she chewed a small piece off the firs da but has since ignored it.

She is eating some of her pellets. She is picking through her hay. She does eat her supplement and drinks her water - but not as much as she normally does when nursing. Her fur does not look as healthy as it normally does. Her weight is down by at least 100 gms from where it should be. She has been losing at least 20 gms a day which is not normal for her after having kits. Today she did not lose any weight which is why I did not pull the kits today. Today was my cut off day. She gained 10 gms and they all gained a gm or two.

Edited to add: I gave her a bit of dyne a couple of days ago in the hopes that it would give her a bit of energy to encourage her to eat a little more, I realize that it has sugar but was desperate and using old ranchers tricks as am doing now with the apple juice and hoping that it will increase her fluid intake and help with the amount of milk production (she is producing some milk - just not enough), she is no longer getting the dyne

 

[mercynursie]

you might look into the herb fenugreek(sp.)? I have heard that it has helped with milk production in people and animals,but I would check with the experts to see if it is safe/effective for chins,.

 

[Becky]

Have you checked to see if she is carrying another kit that she did not pass? That's a lot of weight to lose.

 

[tunes]

I agree. I would be sure she does not have a dead kit or even pyometra going on. She shouldn't lose that much weight in that short of time.

 

[EMSChins]

She is closed and there is no discharge nor odor so no reason to suspect pyometra unless it is closed pyometra. I do not feel a baby or enlarged uterus, I have not had the pleasure of feeling a retained fetus yet (yuck) so not exactly sure what to feel for but am a nurse so feel fairly confident that there isn't one there. Her belly is soft, non-distended, no sounds. She was cooperative considering she doesn't like to be handled.

Her normal weight non-preggers is in the 700 - 750 range, predelivery weight was 875 gms. The combined weight of her kits was 151 gms (53,50,48), yesterday she was down to 632 gms, today she is back up to 641. She has never gone below 700 so that is why I am concerned.

She is constantly sitting on the babies so I have put food on the bottom of the cage as well as the feeder in case she isn't getting up to eat.

 

[mercynursie]

Ooohhh! I found it for critters!! It is in the herbal lactation supplement on Fuzzie Kingdom site!! http://www.fuzzieskingdom.com/herbs/remedies/lactation-chinchilla-rabbit-guineapig.html

 

[tunes]

Fenugreek used to be recommended all the time for chins until it was discovered that it basically keeps the female having perpetual cramps like she would have with labor. Most people stopped recommending it after that which is why you don't see it all over CnH.

 

[EMSChins]

I am hesitant to add anything else to her diet right now anyway. After feeding them all for the evening I found her hunched over the dish of dry supplement for the babies and chowing down on that (ground pellets, baby food and dry goats milk replacer) each time I took a baby out to supplement them so hopefully her appetite is on the way back to normal and weight will be up again tomorrow.

 

[addictedtochins]

That's great! Good luck