Lightest survived birth weight

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halfstache

halfstache

Beware the 2 headed chin
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Messages
235
Location
Ceres, ca
There may be a thread on here about this already, but I was just curious what is the lightest weight baby everyone has had on here that was healthy and survived. What brought this up for me is that we just had a litter delivered last night and the smallest one of the three was just a tiny little gal weighing in at 25 grams. That is the smallest kit I've ever seen.
 
My smallest surviving kit was 35 g. I have not had luck with any born smaller than that, even with handfeeding. Good luck with your little one - it will be a tough fight.
 
I had one born at 18 grams, I fostered him to another female because his mother had no milk, but he survived and I didnt supplement
 
I currently have a kit that weighed 30 gms at birth - obviously premature compared to her littermate at 58 gms. She dropped and hovered at 24 gms for two weeks and now at 4 weeks is a whopping 57 gms. Her brother is at 150. I don't know what is keeping her going but she is a fighter so we will see.

Prior to this my smallest survivor was 31 gms at birth and topped out at 875 as an adult!
 
My smallest was a premature kit at 29 grams out of a litter of triplets, at her lightest she dropped to 23 before gaining. I did have to supliment her till I had another female give birth cause her siblings would beat up on her.
 
It depends on the weight of the other babies if there are any.

I had a litter at 26, 29, 32 survive just fine, but a 35 gram baby with a 72 gram baby usually does not make it.

Tiny singles usually do though. I don't supplement them either, mom produces plenty of milk they just need the drive to go get it.
 
Everytime I have a runty baby, it's in a triplet or larger litter and the siblings are much larger in size. I think in those cases, the runt just didnt get enough nutrition before birth and often times, it is as if their mouth muscles haven't developed well enough to nurse.
 
I had twins my 1st babies born here Sept 2006 brother was 64 grs & she was 28 grs I believe. I just let nature take its course. They both survived.
 
As far as nutrition mamas mimye best, with the highest chance of survival. It's true of premature humans that can get breast milk over supplement. If the kit is nursing but the sibs get in the way, I'd rotate out the fatties to give the runt a chance vs supplementing the runt. If they aren't nursing then obviously you'd have to hand feed but I think that would be a very bad sign. Gl I hope she/he makes it.

I haven't had any tiny kits myself.
 
Well unfortunately she didn't make it. I figured that was going to happen, she was nursing and we were supplementing but I think she may have been born premature. So I guess that means that if her brother survives he may end up being my lightest survivor. He was born at 33 grams and appears to have bottomed or at 29 but is now holding steady.
 
Aww sorry to hear about her. Sounds like maybe the littler was just born a tad early? Hope the boy does well for you.
 
We had quads born to a rescue 3 days ago. All four are tiny! 39, 36, 30 and 29 grams. 2 (36 g and 29 g babies) were found semi-wet and cold, barley able to move. We warmed them up and stimulated the cold ones and left the others with their mother. Once they were warm, I put mamma and her babies in a cat carrier. She kept leaving them and they needed her. Her milk was not in so I started feeding everyone a little every 2 hours. One of the cold babies (36 g) remained lethargic and I could not get her to eat. She passed away yesterday. The remaining 3 are bouncing off the walls now and momma's milk is in. I am keeping my eyes on all of them and supplementing the smallest one until she is big enough to not get pushed aside.
 
Had a 32g out of a set of quads last fall. Mother did not have milk. Separated them into groups of two the next day due to horrible fighting. Hand fed them all.
This kit will be 5 months old at the end of the month. Weighs 580 g.

Note: This kit resisted eating from the beginning. When she did begin to eat, it was drops. Usually the 3rd drop would come back out the mouth as a bubble. And she was done eating.
I was certain this kit would die or aspirate. Other three kits would drink the drops with no problems. By the second week the kit with the drinking problem started to drink the drops without bubbles and fed like the others with many drops out of a syringe. A fellow breeder who was helping me with her said she felt the kits lungs may not have been fully formed. You would never know it now. She acts like any other chin in the quad group.
 
Sadly, we lost the tiniest one today. She suddenly refused to eat. If I gave her a drop it would just run down her face. The few times she did get some in her mouth, it would come out of her nose. She went downhill very fast. Gladly, though, the other two are doing great. Momma's milk is in and the 30 gram kit is a little demon. She bites her sister and her mother and runs around the cage like the Tasmanian Devil. The other one is quite active, to, but I when a 30 gram extreme mosaic acts like Taz, it is a sight to see.
 
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