Quads again

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6Dusters

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Messages
1,813
Location
Richmond Virginia
I'm not a fan of quads. And I believe this is the third set born here. Liv gave birth to four girls. Two standards and two mosaics. By day two they were fighting and determined to kill one another. I started hand feeding them. And had to rotate two in and two out from that time forward. They are 31 days old now and drinking out of milk bottles hung on the cage. They eat my dry supplement along with hay and pellets. This group has made me consider wanting to get out of chins. I have had to raise 6 by hand in the last year. It takes too much time away from my family.
The thing that amazes me about this birth, is the fact Liv was a quad as well. She is a first time mom. This birth took her five hours. I was on the edge of my seat. Liv was exhausted when the last was born. Had to swing the kit to get rid of fluid and warm her up. One of the standards was small and could not drink out of a syringe without bubbling. I was sure this one would have perished. Took great skill to only set a drop at a time on the lips and hope she didn't aspirated.
 
Good luck! I hate quad litters. I normally foster a kit or two out if I have other nursing females with single kits.

I find my spring/early summer litters tend to be larger than my fall/winter litters.
 
Good luck! I know quads are exhausting, even triplets can be. I've had three litters of triplets and a litter of quads since May. The first two triplets were from the same dad. And the dad that fathered the quads was with another female who is due as early as October 9, and she's looking quite huge. If she has a big litter I'm going to say the father has something to do with litter size. And if she has quads, I may remove that male from breeding. He's a good male but the big litters are too much!
 
Females determine how many eggs are dropped for fertilization. So your male should stay in breeding. He may have a high sperm count with strong swimmers, but your girls are the ones dropping eggs.
 
What Narcissus said. Btw Dusters, females would have a genetic influence to drop more or less eggs, breed with males and females that come from lines that have 1 or 2 kits. I'm not saying that that's the only factor but it is a pretty universal concept. =) (males from lines of small litters is to influence the genetics of the next generation that you keep)
 
Oh! Good to know. It must just all be coincidental. I thought my male was just making big litters somehow! He's such a fast breeder, too. Thanks!
 
before and after

Since I am able to upload photo's again....I thought I would share a couple more.
First is baby "Blaze". She was born last in the quad group and her mother did not have the energy to clean her up. So I took over.
Second photo is Blaze on the front right. She was adopted out with a standard sister last month.
 

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