need fostering advice for my 2 orphans

[rainbopyro]

On wed my chin had 2 babies, on friday she had to be uthinized due to retaining a third, have been bottle feeding the babies every hour to 2 hours since thurs since i noticed mom wasnt doing well, they are not gaining weight steadily and gain a gram then loose it, both perky and active, the little girl is a bit of a bully to her brother tho and that is concerning, I have another chilla who is pregnant and my most experienced mother, should have her babies tomorrow, i was expecting them today but they didnt come, she is super interested in the babies and want them, is any harm likely to come of her if I give them to her now? Also what supplementation do you think she might need givin she will have the extra burden of more kits to look after, she successfully raised 3 last time she had a litter last year, how many is too many for a chin? And about the bullying how can i handle that? what if the one is mean to the smaller babies my chin is gonna have? Any advice would be great!

 

[rainbopyro]

The little kit (34g) is down 2 grams and struggling, I am using fresh goats milk, baby cerial, and some crushed chilla pellet as formula and stimulating, but he is still degressing, stays laying lathargic on heat mat, still eating but only 1\2 to a 1\4 ml each hours if I am lucky, any way to give him a boost and perk up his little system, can he have some yogurt? would sweetening the food help him gobble more down? I hate the sad part of the beautiful world of chillas hope he makes it through the night.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

It depends on the mom. If she has 2 then I wouldn't foster them to her. That's alot on her. If she has one then you can try.

Out of curiosity why did you euthanize mom and not do a spay? I've done emergency spays on females that have had 1-3 dead kits in them. My sickest one was pregnant with 3. One of those kits died in utero approx 1 week before she was due-the other two also died but were at different stages of decomposition. She had a very high temp and was very toxic. Once we removed the infected uterus and all three dead kits-put her on major antibiotics she rebounded pretty quickly.

 

[Dreamlite]

I agree with Godins. With a spay you most likely could have saved the mother. If the other female is interested in fostering that would be great but if she has twins or triplets odds are she won't have enough milk for her kits plus these 2. I would increase feeding during the day to every hour on the weaker one. Smaller more frequent feedings. Some kits just don't thrive even with proper help. If the sister is beating up on him, they need separated. He doesn't need to deal with that. Good luck.

 

[tunes]

No crushed pellets. That is just going to end up choking him or he may aspirate them. He's too small and weak right now. Just goat's milk and baby rice cereal. Experiment with temperatures. Some babies like it a bit cooler, some like it warmer. Finding the one that he likes best may help.

What about dad? Where is he?