new borns weight issues

[aaura]

Hi I just had a litter of 3 born to a first time mom 2 boys and a girl the girl is gaining just fine but the boys are stuck at 44 & 38 grams the one that weighed 38 went down from 40g I have another female who had 3 last month their 5 weeks old. I have goat milk formula and I got little bottles I tried to get the boy that weighed less to take the bottle but he wouldn't they all seem to be under mom for feeding. I have some suringes too but the one I found was a long ended one. Wondering if I could surrogate my other mom take her babies away for a bit and have her feed them for a bit I'd like to know how to do this she seems to want the boys (keeps reaching for them when I show her them) how long do I keep her with them can I put them back with their mom (the female is the grandmother of the boys) etc

 

[tunes]

It would be better not to use a bottle for kits. Use an eye dropper or an insulin syringe. It's too easy for a kit to bite the tip off a bottle and choke or to get too much formula.

I would definitely try fostering to the mom who has the older kits. You have to be careful with that though. Not all moms are good foster moms. When you put them in with her, take a bunch of her old shavings and rub them all over the little ones. It will help disguise the "strange" scent of another chin. If you are going to rotate them back in with their mom, you will need to repeat that with their old shavings as well.

At five weeks, her boys are getting close to weaning. You could easily leave them out for several hours at a time, providing you put them in a kit safe cage, give them some of the dry formula, hay, pellets, and you could even hang a water bottle with formula in it for them.

 

[akane]

Hachiro had 2 boys and a girl as her first litter too and she had a ton of trouble feeding them. We actually took her to the vet because her nipples were so irritated we were afraid of infection. The vet gave us some meds and told us to separate the kits for part of the day and give them a bottle of formula. We mixed up goat kid formula and used a small hamster bottle. They were already drinking from a water bottle so it worked out well. Hachiro recovered some weight and her nipples were no longer red and swollen and the kits put on a ton of weight in the first week of feeding them that way. The runt rapidly caught up with his 2 siblings. They are all over 200 grams now and nearly 100% eating solid food.

You can get some hard plastic (as hard as a syringe or plastic dropper) very small nipples that screw on to syringes from the squirrel store. They've also got the syringes and a variety of other things.

 

[aaura]

Her nipples are pink from what she let me see I actually separated the girl and let the boys be with mom for a bit the one that looks like a runt went from 36 back up to 38 while his brother is still at 44 now, I only have the goat milk and its not staying warm very long got the girl to take a bit while she was away but lol she wasn't happy I'm not going to worry about the surrogate and I think I'm just gonna take the girl out for maybe 30m and leave the boys with mom

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[aaura]

With rotation once or twice a day does that non sweetened apple juice and water thing actually work for helping produce milk?

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[aaura]

Does the formula need to stay warm? I pulled out the girl earlier and just kept the boys with her the runt gained 2 grams back but the other is still at 44 how long should I do this for how many times should I "force feed" whoever etc

 

[tunes]

You don't force feed kits, you hand feed. There is an FAQ that explains how to do it in the breeding and babies section, but I wouldn't do that at this point.

The girl isn't all that big either. She needs to be with a nursing mom. The 5 week old kits would be absolutely fine away from mom for several hours at a time, and if they are big enough, they could even be weaned and given the dry formula. I would seriously consider fostering so that all the youngest kits can be eating as often as they need to.

For the older kits the formula doesn't have to be kept super warm. Warm it up to hang it, then it can stay on the cage for a couple hours. If they are already drinking water, drinking room temperature formula isn't going to hurt them.

 

[saphire]

Do as Tunes suggests. She is saying what all breeders would advise you to do.

 

[aaura]

@tunes thanks so the other mom (big mamma) had 2 twin boys and a beige girl ill try as you suggest thank you everyone

*should I just take the two boys out and leave the girl with her mom with fostering the two boys to big mamma?

I rubbed some of big mammas old duff on them but she doesn't seem interested in the two boys she will let them be around her but not feed its looking like should I just leave them in there for a while and continue to watch or...

Okay so big mamma rejected the boy that's staying at 44g but not the runt she started pushing him under her then ploping on her side by him then just went away from him all together and started crying out. So took him out just going to take out the sister from now on and rotate her in with her brothers. I didn't think it would be that easy even with big mammas calm nature

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

I'm wih tunes. Try to use the foster mom. Most do really well. It's the best chance they have.

 

[tunes]

What is the weight of the biggest kit? I'm not sure I saw that. If you are going to rotate, with them being so little, you will have to do it every two hours around the clock, day and night. The smallest one is really on the edge of making it with his weight being so low and with him not gaining.

Did the foster mom appear aggressive towards the little ones or just confused? How long did you leave them in? Did you hover or go away?

 

[aaura]

The weight of the female is 57 the next male is 45 now the foster mom was confused at first then started being aggressive towards the biggest male she started pushing the runt under her when I took the big one out to avoid harm then she started plopoing on her side I was hovering because I didn't want her to kill them after an escape incident of the foster moms kits I left the room to find them and the foster mom was under the platform the baby was on hiding

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[aaura]

Oh what length should their teeth be I'm pretty sure the runt is the one biting mom and leaving scabs above some of her nipples I keep hearing her click at him

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk