EMSChins
Hendryx Chinchillas
My RGS standard female, Pixie gave birth to A12 and A13 last night with some assistance from moi!
I noticed that she was in labor around 4 pm yesterday afternoon after handfeeding my crew and seemed to be in a good amount of pain so I kept a close eye on her as she is a first time mom. She gained over 300 gms so i was very worried about what her first litter would turn out to be. I don't know how long she was in labor prior to 4pm as I hadn't been down there since my 1:30 feedings. She wasn't acting like my other chins in labor have, she was completely pressed to the floor and wouldn't move and you could literally see powerful contractions work there way down her body. At 5 pm there was no sign of a baby except for a tiny bit of black showing - couldn't tell the body part at this point. At 5:30 a tiny nose and mouth showing but no signs of life. :-( I didn't get too worried as I figured that the umbilical cord was still attached and no signs of bleeding. By 6:15 still no progress so I got her out of her cage and encouraged her to move around. There was nothing for me to grab on the baby to help with delivery so I just kept massaging her and moving her and decided that if there was no progress by 7 pm and she started to tire it was time to go to the vet. By 6:30-6:45 the baby finally delivered. She started nipping it and surprisingly it was alive after all that time in the birth canal. Pixie was too weak to clean it so I dried it off and kept it warm and then put it back with her. About 30 minutes later she passed some nasty mess of a thing, not sure if it was extra placenta , or part of one (as she had already eaten the first one) or an unformed fetus head (yuck)! I am leaning towards placenta tissue as it was soft, bloody and unformed although after examining it I could swear that it had teeth!
About an 45 minutes to an hour after that she had a 2nd baby, much smaller and weaker than the first. I had to dry and stimulate that one too. The first one was a decent size and actively looking to nurse, the 2nd one was fairly small and just kept rolling over on it's side. I kept stimulating it and by the time I went to bed, it was dry and fluffy and she was caring for both of them. This morning they are both nursing and appear to be doing well.
They are both female. Thank god she only had twins since she was so big. I have felt around on her belly and it doesn't feel like she has anymore in there so hopefully smooth sailing with her babies for the next 6-8 weeks and no more hand feeding. Now we just have Jet, our BV, who is due next week and then hopefully at least a month or more before any more litters.
Yesterday's litter was our 6th litter since the end of march and I am tired - not to mention running out of cages! Can't wait till show season!!!
Anyway - sorry for the long story but here is a terrible picture of A12 and A13.
I noticed that she was in labor around 4 pm yesterday afternoon after handfeeding my crew and seemed to be in a good amount of pain so I kept a close eye on her as she is a first time mom. She gained over 300 gms so i was very worried about what her first litter would turn out to be. I don't know how long she was in labor prior to 4pm as I hadn't been down there since my 1:30 feedings. She wasn't acting like my other chins in labor have, she was completely pressed to the floor and wouldn't move and you could literally see powerful contractions work there way down her body. At 5 pm there was no sign of a baby except for a tiny bit of black showing - couldn't tell the body part at this point. At 5:30 a tiny nose and mouth showing but no signs of life. :-( I didn't get too worried as I figured that the umbilical cord was still attached and no signs of bleeding. By 6:15 still no progress so I got her out of her cage and encouraged her to move around. There was nothing for me to grab on the baby to help with delivery so I just kept massaging her and moving her and decided that if there was no progress by 7 pm and she started to tire it was time to go to the vet. By 6:30-6:45 the baby finally delivered. She started nipping it and surprisingly it was alive after all that time in the birth canal. Pixie was too weak to clean it so I dried it off and kept it warm and then put it back with her. About 30 minutes later she passed some nasty mess of a thing, not sure if it was extra placenta , or part of one (as she had already eaten the first one) or an unformed fetus head (yuck)! I am leaning towards placenta tissue as it was soft, bloody and unformed although after examining it I could swear that it had teeth!
About an 45 minutes to an hour after that she had a 2nd baby, much smaller and weaker than the first. I had to dry and stimulate that one too. The first one was a decent size and actively looking to nurse, the 2nd one was fairly small and just kept rolling over on it's side. I kept stimulating it and by the time I went to bed, it was dry and fluffy and she was caring for both of them. This morning they are both nursing and appear to be doing well.
They are both female. Thank god she only had twins since she was so big. I have felt around on her belly and it doesn't feel like she has anymore in there so hopefully smooth sailing with her babies for the next 6-8 weeks and no more hand feeding. Now we just have Jet, our BV, who is due next week and then hopefully at least a month or more before any more litters.
Yesterday's litter was our 6th litter since the end of march and I am tired - not to mention running out of cages! Can't wait till show season!!!
Anyway - sorry for the long story but here is a terrible picture of A12 and A13.
Wow thats quite the story for sure.
