Dwarf Baby?

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halfstache

halfstache

Beware the 2 headed chin
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Messages
235
Location
Ceres, ca
Take a look at this little guy, he's the last survivor of my litter of quads. I'm thinking he looks like a dwarf. The entire litter had the same features, big blunt head, smaller than normal ears, walked with an odd gait.

Should point out that he is currently 52 grams, and was born 12/30/2012
 

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Almost a month old! What weight was he born at. (not a breeder but I am curious about oddities!)

He's cute hope he makes it to adulthood.
 
I think he's probably just a very small baby. He probably hasn't gotten enough milk since he was born. Babies usually have a large head and small ears in the beginning. It is really not possible at this point to say if you would have a dwarf or not. Normally any dwarf babies are going to look like normal babies until after they are weaned. They normally don't grow much after they are four months of age. You have awhile yet before you will know about this chin, I hope that the little guy starts to grow for you very soon.
 
He was the runt of the litter at birth, weighing a whopping 36 grams (the smallest kit I've ever had born to date). He was up to 57 a couple days ago, but has been steadily dropping. I'm really hoping that the loss evens out and he starts gaining again. That seems to be a pattern with him so far. Up a few grams, back down a few grams, and repeat.
 
He's getting goats milk currently, but he only eats about 3/10 ml at a time. We've also tried placing him with another mother who is producing milk like a cow, but I can't be sure if he's actually nursed with her. He is still nursing from his mom and I've watched him eat loose hay.
 
When I last posted about this little fellow I was really afraid that he wasn't going to pull through, but he hung in there and finally started feeding really well. A big thanks to everyone who had help steer me to finding fresh goats milk for that. Without it I'm sure he would have been lost. Now my question is when to wean him. Normally I wean at 8 weeks and 200 grams, but this little guy is now over the 8 week mark by a few days and is still around 140 grams. I haven't witnessed him nursing in quite a while, but I've also not witnessed him drinking water either. I'm sure he's got to be doing one or the other. He's been putting on weight steadily, but its a slow gain. I've never had one stay so small for so long, what would you guys do in the same situation?
 
I had a similar kit not long ago. He too survived. I feed him goat's milk until he was 200 Gr. although I did cut down his feedings to 4 times a day. That way he did eat more at a time About that time he started refusing milk and was eating plenty on his own
 
If the mom still has milk in this type of situation, I will leave the male in with his mama for a week or two longer than normal. He's gaining steadily so pulling him from a place of comfort isn't a good idea, keeping him in with mom is probably the best strategy at this point. You could try to supplement him like Barb said - have you been supplementing him the past few weeks? If so, keep on doing it. The extra calories and nutrition can't hurt him. :) I hope he hits a growth spurt for you!!
 
we were supplementing until recently. He's been gaining about 4 grams a day and always has a full round belly. We had slowly stopped supplementing, making sure that he was eating enough on his own to keep his weight gain going.
 
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