baby still loosing weight

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
D

Dreamlite

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
1,130
Location
Dallastown, PA
I had 3 mother give birth in less than a week. The one kit is doing well, violas kit I am supplamenting since the mother is 10 yrs old and then I have a 1st time mother. She gave birth 3 days ago to a bv fm weighing 43 grams, a single. After 24 hrs the kit was down to 40 grams, so I added apple/water. Last night the kit was down again to 39 grams and is starting to slow down, so I started supplementing but the kit has no interest in eating anything I'm feeding. I'm not sure if the moms milk hasn't come in yet or if the kit isn't trying hard enough. I've never had a kit loosing weight that refuses hand feeding. I'm using fresh goats milk warmed but not hot. Mom is cleaning and sitting on the kit to encourage nursing but I havnt actually seen the kit nursing. I'm considering fostering the kit off on my good female who is also nursing but I'm not sure at what point to give up on this mother. Would you try breeding her again? Any advise would be helpful.
 
I recently had a fairly large kit born to a proven successful mother who simply failed to thrive. I don't know how long you have had that girl but the one I had I bought pregnant and I moved her from TN to PA. I was suspect that maybe such a drastic move might have just caused too much stress...Just a thought....
 
It's possible that her milk hasn't come in completely yet. My female wasn't able to provide enough milk for both kits to start actually gaining weight until practically a week into their birth. Now they're chunky monkeys!
 
if the kit is refusing to eat the formula, then he is not hungry because mom has some milk. I would wait a little longer to see if he starts to level off or even gain. Kits usually loose weight in the first few days. This is because the milk usually does not come in all at once but rather slowly increases to me the kit's needs.
 
The kit is down more to 36 grams this evening. I know loosing a few grams is normal but I havnt had one loose this much in the first 3 days. I had the mother for about 1 year so it shouldn't be stress related. The father I have never lost a kit from. This is his 22nd kit. I do have a mother that I could foster the kit off on. At what point would you step in and move the kit? I know that the kit trying to nurse stimulated milk production but I don't want to wait too long. Glad this is the 1st time I've had to deal with this. Hopeing this is the last.
 
in the Goats Milk, do you put in baby rice pablum in it? You can warm the syring with your hand the milk will warm up to your body temp which is good. You can try adding just a drop of honey or Dyne to sweeten it a bit to make it more enticing and reduce it over the days to come once he is feeding.

Give your female some fenugrek, Tanya from Fuzzies Kingdom also has herbs to help to help moms lactate.

This situation often happens to first time moms. I have had one that takes over 6 days to get her milk. So to answer your question, yes I would breed her again but if this occurs again, I would not.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't blame the female right yet. If the kit isn't nursing then mom's milk will not drop. There may be something wrong with the kit making it failure to thrive. If a second litter proves she is a non producer I would take her out then.
 
I switched the kit to another female and it has gained and is up to44 grams as of this morning. I placed a week old kit with her that I have seen constently under her nursing and it has lost 4 grams in 24 hours. Its been 5 or 6 days now since she gave birth. At what point do you givee up on her milk coming in? I plan on giving her another chance, hopeing her 2nd litter does better. Have you found that most of these mothers don't do well with their 2nd litter or that most of them start producing? She's a very nice female, shown and out of good lines. Figures I would pick the dud, lol.
 
We have found that some times when we place a kit with a surrogate that it takes a day or two before the kit starts to gain. We have also had kits that refused to accept a surrogate mom (even though the new mom seems to accept the kit). We had one set of triplets that we had to bottle feed due to the mom not having enough milk. We tried each of the kits (individually) with a surrogate and they would not accept the new mom. In contrast, we lost a mom (apparently due to an intestinal blockage) who had a set of quads. We hand fed three of the kits with a dropper. The fourth would not take the hand feeding at all, but we were able to successfully place him with a surrogate. All fours kits did just fine. Two have gone to new homes and we are keeping the other two.
 
Up date on the kit:

The mother is a BV who was introed with my PW male. She gave birth 11/11. Which was 103 days after putting them together. I had found a mateing plug which would have made her due 11/15, so the kit was premature either way. The kit was actively nursing on mother but lost weight. I tried to supliment but the kit would not eat anything from me. After leaving her with her mother for 5 days with no improvement and huge loss of weight (born 43 grams, down to 30 at this point), I fostered the kit out to a female with a single kit born a week before. The kits did not get along so I started rotating and suplimenting. The kit still was refusing any milk from me, but had gained back 4 grams by 11/17.

That day I went into the chin room to switch babies and saw very small spots of blood and found out the kit had a small rectal prolapse. Not wanting to give up I called my 2 exotic vets, both of which were on vacation (just my luck!) And their fill-ins at both clinics had never worked on chins. They gave me the number for a vet out at Cornel vet school who suggested a sugar water enema. So after placing the prolapse back in the kit for the 3rd time I did the enema and so far a week later the kit is oing well, and gaining weight. She is now up to 56 grams and growing.

Anyone who thinks breeding is easy, or thinks its all cute babies is nuts. I was raised on a farm so I understand not all babies make it, but this kit was trying right there with me!

Has anyone had a mother with no milk get milk in the 2nd litter? I really don't want to do this again if its unlikely forher to be able to raise a litter normal.
 
I had a mom that had 5 litters 1st and 2nd litter no milk. 3rd thru 5th she had milk. Her 2 daughters had their 1st litters this year both no milk. 1 daughter is pregnant again so I will see if her milk comes in. Both daughters from different litters were born in 2010 the mom had a breed back.
 
I don't have an answer for the milk. Just wanted to say wonderful job keeping up with your little one. Last year I missed a whole summer at the beach because I had to stay home and hand feed a kit whose mother never had milk come in. ( I did not breed her again )

And you are so correct!! Sometimes raising chins isn't fun.
 
I never judge a female's milk production by her first litter. I've had more than a few females that didn't produce much, if any, milk the first litter and then turn around to produce enough milk for quads their second litter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top