Unexpected Chinnie Babies

[stampinchick]

Tonight as I was refilling food and water for my female chin,Shirley, I almost jumped out of my skin as I thought a tiny mouse was in the lower half of her cage. Imagine my surprise to find out she had babies in there! There were 2 babies. Apparently when our male chin, Goober, had made an escape a little while bag, he got a little too close to Shirley. So anyways, I spent about an hour moving things around and confing them to the lower half of her cage. I am going to work on baby proofing it tomorrow as I had no idea babies were coming and it is now 11pm. I used to be a regular active member of this site, but have not been as involved since my littlest boy turned 2 and I went back to school (just no time:tantrum So, my first question is, can anyone tell how old the babies may be from the pictures? I know this seems silly, but she has a two tiered cage and all of the food and water was previously in the top of the cage, and she had the babies hiding out in a hidey house in the bottom. Also, I think I had read previously that I should not have dust in the cage with the babies until they are a certain age. Is that true and if so how old? I know this is just the beginning, but I know how helpful everyone on this forum is and I know you guys will know these answers.

 

[threewingedfury]

You really need to babyproof everything tonight. An accident can happen over night and it's not worth the wait. You can't really tell exactly how old they are, but they're dry, so most likely less than a week old and I'd lean towards two days old or less. The mom can have a dust bath, it's not gonna hurt her.

 

[tunes]

Probably a couple days old, if that. It's really hard to say. Don't worry about the dust. I've dusted the same day as delivery and sometimes to help delivery along.

 

[stampinchick]

What can I do to baby proof tonight? I have taken them down to one level on the cage, all ledges are out, the bottom is fleece lined, and the cage is solid for the bottom two inches on the very bottom level. My concern is more about what supplies I may need to baby prrof at this time of night, not actually doing it :hmm: If its something I could get at walmart, there is a 24 hour one near by, but other than that it would have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[stampinchick]

Also, they are very different in size. Is this a concern? The violet is twice the size of the standard.

 

[threewingedfury]

What is the bar spacing on the cage? Is it possible for the kits to get out through the bars? 2" isn't gonna stop them from getting out if the bars are large enough for them to fit through. They can crawl to the top of the cage, they're like spider monkies.

Also.. you don't have a violet. That looks like a standard and a beige. Babies come in all shapes and sizes, but you need to make sure that they're both gaining weight at a steady rate and that the larger kit isn't taking all of the milk or attacking the smaller kit.

 

[Laurie]

you really need to make sure something is around the cage to prevent them from getting out of it. If you can get screening and put all around the cage that will work, BUT you have to do it from the inside as the babies can get out and get trapped between the cage and the screening. They don't seem like they can get through the bars but they can! If you don't have 1/2 inch by 1 inch spacing on the cage they can escape and most likely will. Lots of bad things can happen to a baby when it's out of the cage and yes, death, is definitely one of them.

I think you're foremost concern should be making sure they cannot get through the cage bars.

Not all babies are born the same size, often in a litter you will have one larger than the other. The best thing you can do is to purchase a gram scale and weigh them daily making sure they are gaining weight. If they are not you are going to have to supplement feed them.

Read over the FAQ's section in the breeding section to prepare yourself for any issues that might arise.

But honestly priority one should be baby proofing that cage.

 

[Rickman]

I'd be looking around the room for more - they can have more than two!

 

[stampinchick]

the bar spacing is about 1" tall with gaps of about 3" width wize, so I will wrap something around the bars tonight. I actually totally knew he/she was a beige. We used to have a violet,but she passed away and I was just writing it up quick and wrote violet. The babies literally look like miniature versions of mom and dad. Ok, off to work on somehow wrapping the cage?

 

[Riven]

Do you have any other cages with smaller wiring? In all honesty it's very hard to properly baby proof a cage. I'm guessing what you have is a super pet cage, and they can easily slip through the bars.

I'm going to say those are two days old at the most. Kits don't "hide", they are curious and try to stay by mom, so if you didn't see them last night, they probably weren't there.

The quickest way to baby proof is to use hardware cloth or even screen window repair and zip tie it to the cage, or wire it if you have severe chewers. But you have to put it everywhere, because they'll climb. The best thing is to get a baby safe cage asap.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I am guessing you did a thorough check of the room to see if any kits had escaped correct?? They will and can escape within hours of birth and those kits do look a few days old.

 

[stampinchick]

We thoroughly checked the rooms and no other kits are around. We baby proofed the cage today and had a super fiasco in the process. Mom escaped from the bottom portion of the cage while we were baby proofing the top half. As we were chasing her around like mad trying to get her back in the cage, the beige kit slipped himself right through the cage wires.Thank God my oldest son saw him and grabbed him before he got too far. We were able to get mom and both babies back in the fully baby proofed cage. My husband is still cursing me for not having been able to find a baby proof cage anywhere today and the wrapping of the inside of the cage with the hardware cloth was a total nightmare. They are all safe and settled now.
I had also wanted to weigh both babies to start keeping track, but after all of that nonsense and how protective momma is with her babies, I will hold of on traumatizing them any further until tomorrow. :wacko: Also, when we were transfering them tonight I determined that both kits are female.
Thanks everyone for the help. I am sure I will be getting back into the board again now with all of this.

 

[Laurie]

They are very slippery little devils for sure. Glad you got the cage baby proofed!

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I've posted this several times to other people's threads but there is a baby safe cage sold at petsmart for about $40 if you find it doesnt hold well. I can link you if you want.

 

[Riven]

If the one you're talking about has a blue bottom and is a smaller cage... that is a good spare cage to have! I had one that came with a chin I was chin sitting, and I used it for my c-section girl, worked great.

 

[Cuddlebug]

I have it, too. I use it as a dusting cage most of the time and as a spare when I need one.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

Yes that's it. It is very handy!

 

[stampinchick]

I went to pet smart and couldn't find it, but then again the cage section was wiped out, like maybe half of the stock as normal. The baby-proofing we did is working out well. Both chins seem to be doing very well. The beige is the bigger of the two, and was 50g the morning after I found them.She is now up to 65g at 6 days old. The standard was 40g in the beginning and is now up to 50g. They are so sweet and momma is very protective of them.
At what age should they be given access to ledges and more cage space? I have a very large cage, but with momma, the two babies and all of the paraphenlia in half of it, without ledges even, it seem kind of cramped.
Thanks again to everyone for all of the help. I knew this was the place to come back to when I found them.