mom attacking 7 week old kit

[sonja]

Hi. i have two female chins who both gave birth to two babies a day appart. the moms were great with the babies an looked after them very well.
the kits wil be 8 weeks on thursday (4th October). this morning i saw the one mom attacking the babies. she will kind of sneak up on them and then jump on them and push them down and tries to bite them. the other mom doesn't do this at all.
I was planning on moving the babies on thursday to a seperate cage to wean them as they are already eating and drinking good.

does any one have any advice on this because i would like to leave the with their moms for as long as possible but not if the babies saftey are at risk.

thanks

 

[Becky]

Move them now. Mom is out of milk and the babies are still trying to nurse. They are old enough and should be fine on their own.

Do you know how much they weigh? Hopefully, at least 200 grams, but I would move them regardless.

 

[tunes]

I agree - move them. Those kits don't stand a chance if mom really wants to hurt them. Tuesday or Thursday it doesn't matter - it's close enough. Move them out now.

 

[Dreamlite]

They are old enough to wean. I just had a sililar thing here. Weaned the kits at 6 1/2 weeks old. They are over 200 grams and are continuing to gain nicely. I would move them asap. Some mothers can and will kill kits.

 

[sonja]

Hi, thanks for all the reply. After the third time she attacked them this morning I moved them to their own cage. They weigh between 205g and 246g so they should be fine. I will just keep a close eye on them for the next week or so to make sure they are gaining weigh and stay healthy.

Just curious... After they all became calm again the mom who attacked them allowed them to sleep next to her again and drink milk as well and after an hour is so she would begin to attack them again. Why would she be nice and then attack?

 

[AZChins]

They may have been trying to nurse much too aggressively. I don't see many mother chins stop producing milk when their kits are 7 weeks old, but if they do and the kits still try to nurse it puts the mommas into really bad moods. She's probably nice because they aren't hurting her/annoying the beejeezus out of her trying to nurse.

On the other side of the coin I have mother chins that will nurse a baby female until the kit is five months old or maybe older...it's all dependent on the mother chin and what her body decides to do.

Was this the first litter of this female, who is attacking babies?

 

[sonja]

Yes this was her first litter. Is was the sisters first litter as well. So they both lived in the same cage with their babies (two babies from each mum exactly a day apart in age). from the kits birth they both were exceptional mums caring great for their babies and had no problem with each others kits, all af them huddled up together when they slept. Its just the one mum who starter acting this way with all the babies even her own.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

Are these 2 moms together with the babies? If they are maybe the wrong kits are trying to nurse on the wrong mother and it is that mom that is attacking the kits. I have had that happen and had to separate the moms and the respective kits. I have had many a mom share the duties with the other mom. However sometimes it does not work and the moms have to be separated

 

[sonja]

Yes the two moms are together and shared the feeding duties the entire time from birth, any kit could drink at any mom without a problem but she was attacking grown babies as well.
The babies seem to do good in the separate cage so far only one seems to be trying to get out but the cage is baby proof so it won't be able to get out.

Quick question... Should I put the babies cage close to the parents cage so that they can still see and hear each other or should the cages be far apart to break the bond completely between moms and babies?

 

[VolunteerChin22]

Doesn't matter how far apart they are. Once they are removed they will adjust in their new cages on their own.