Need some help.

[missyjre]

Okay, I'm not sure if this should be here or in the breeding/babies. I do not breed and the baby isn't mine yet. But alas, it is a baby lol. So anyway. I took my birds to the vet today for wing/toenail trimmings and as I use the same vet for my chin she knows I have one and have had others in the past. She had someone bring in a momma and two babies several weeks ago. I'm not sure what was wrong with momma but one baby didn't make it and momma didn't make it either. The owner was going to have the other baby euthanized because she didn't want to hand feed her, so my vet opted to keep her and hand feed herself.
She asked if I would be interested in taking the lil girl now, or fostering her until a home could be found. Since I only have my one girl I'm more than happy to give her a home. She has been eating completely on her own and refusing the hand feeding for about 2 weeks now and has been gaining weight steadily. The vet thinks she's about 9 weeks old. I have never had a baby. I have always taken in older "Unwanted" chins. So the baby thing makes me a bit nervous. Now that I have went on and on I'll get to my questions.
I just ordered a FN 143 to use as a quarantine cage in the other room. I'm not really sure if it needs to have anything done to it to make it work for a lil one. Does it need hardware cloth wrapped or anything? What about shelf spacing do I need to do it differently than I would with an adult? I know no treats for a lil one, but is wood okay? Also, at that age, is she still too young for playtime outside the cage. And about what should her weight be and how should she gain? I know for the most part there are no exact answers but a general guideline would be a great help. Anything else that I may have missed that anyone is willing to slip in, or thinks I need to know I would appreciate it a great deal.

 

[missjess10475]

I put a baby girl in my FN when I got her at 7 weeks. Some say that's small and they can squeeze through the bars. That actually may be true, but mine never did. She was 300 grams at 9 weeks old.

 

[tunes]

The cage needs to be wrapped in hardware cloth. Just because one kit didn't squeeze through the bars, doesn't mean yours won't. It would be a Godawful thing to come home to if she tried to get out and her head got stuck or she escaped and was lost or injured.

At 9 weeks, I would not allow out of cage time. My guess is she's already behind because of the loss of mom and the hand feeding issue, and she needs plenty of time for her body to develop and for the nutrition she receives to go where it's needed. I would hold off on run time for now, at least for another month.

Wood can be given at any age. I throw it in the cage with my nursing mom's and the kits do their best to drag it around and snag it from mom and dad. At her age, I would offer thinner twigs and sticks rather than large coins or thick pieces of wood just because she's small and it will be harder for her to handle.

 

[missyjre]

Thanks so much Tunes.
I'll send the Other half out to get the hardward cloth today and make him get that all done for me before he leaves out for the work for the weekend. I thought I should ask because, as I said I've never had babies and I have no idea about the size of a 9 week old chinnie. My vet said she is a little small for her age and just as you said probably mostly because of the loss of momma and the hand feeding.
I won't let her out for any playtime at all. I didn't think she should have it but wanted to make sure. Give her plenty of time to get nice and sturdy.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Not too long ago, we had a member that kept her 9 week old kit in an FN. We told them to hardware, as Tunes has described and she didn't hardware the cage. The next day, she found the chin's leg...she'd gotten out and the cat ate her. There are very good reasons WHY we tell people to do things a certain way. Please be careful of the "advice" you give. One experience does not translate into "ok for everyone else".

 

[Pikaia]

Not too long ago, we had a member that kept her 9 week old kit in an FN. We told them to hardware, as Tunes has described and she didn't hardware the cage. The next day, she found the chin's leg...she'd gotten out and the cat ate her. There are very good reasons WHY we tell people to do things a certain way. Please be careful of the "advice" you give. One experience does not translate into "ok for everyone else".

eek. How terrible. Better safe than sorry...

 

[VolunteerChin22]

Make sure you do the whole cage and not part of the way up - they are great climbers and will find a way to escape if there is one. Also make sure it is snug against the cage so the baby doesnt get stuck in between.

As for shelf spacing I always lower the height for young kits and make sure they can't fall some how as they are very spacey and clumsy at that age (popcorn'n here and there like they just don't care lol).

Weight varies from kit to kit but I usually wean around 6-7 weeks and my babies are usually about 250gs by then at least, so Im going to say approximately 300gs at least for an average kit... Figuring they gain about 3gs or so a day...

 

[missyjre]

Thanks VolunteerChin22
He did the whole thing, Top, bottom (Even though there's a pan) sides and doors. And I'm Putting in shelves now. Maybe no higher than that second vertical bar up on the fn. Doesn't seem like it would be a bad fall from that height. And i'll put her together a lil hidey hut in a bit and do her up some liners.

Thank you all so much for your help. I'm Super excited and probably equally as nervous about bringing her home. I'm gonna pick her up probably tomorrow evening. I really appreciate this forum and all the help you guys give. It's a great service to the chin community!

 

[missyjre]

*Horizontal bar even! lol

 

[3CsMommy]

I've had 2 of the 4 I currently call "mine" from kit-hood (met one when he was less than a day old). Be prepared; they're fast little boogers, and clumsy as heck! Since she's an orphan, you might want to whip up a snuggle buddy while you're doing liners too. Even if she won't take hand feedings, she's probably used to a lot of company and attention at the vet's office, so there might be an adjustment during her quarantine period. Leaving my iTunes on during Crash's quarantine seemed to help him a little bit, but he still cried when I left the room and shook the bars. (And yes, I felt like a negligent mother every time he did it, the little stinker.)