Help! Chin mom attacking her babies...

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Koshka

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Oct 16, 2014
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I am relatively experienced hobby breeder however I have never had this happen before. This morning I found one of my females with 2 perfect babies. As usual I weighted them and put them back. Everything seemed fine, but all over sudden the mom started chasing and biting her babies. I took them out right away and saw a little blood on one of the babies lips.
I am afraid to put them back... I tried twice and she keeps attacking them... After that I put them with another mommy who had 1 kit recently. She was very friendly and accepted them. Should I just leave them with her or try putting them back to their mom later? They are 52 and 55 grams each born sometime early morning. Looks healthy, mom seems fine. I don't know why she is so aggressive towards them though...
 
She has always been a good mommy but this time she was trying to kill her kits. Grabbing them with her teeth shaking left and right, jumping on them, pinning them down while they were screaming. I am not risking it anymore. I decided to split them and put to 2 different moms who had 1 kit each recently to make it easier for them. Everything looks good. Their weight isn't dropping so it looks like I don't have to supplement them but I will keep watching closely. They are 2 girls and it looks like one is Standard Gray (picture attached) and another is Brown Velvet (she is with her new mommy sleeping didn't want to disturb her right now). Both of them seem huge for being only 1 day old.
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I'd keep them with the foster mom as long as the kits all seem to be getting enough milk and are not squabbling with one another. How old is her current kit?
 
I had a mom do this with her litter in march. She attacked them and I had to foster them out. She just had another litter two weeks ago. I didn't take the babies pit to weigh them. I just left them alone. She has been just fine with them.
 
Yes I am afraid that me picking them up to weigh was a bit too soon perhaps, well at least in this case (other times it's been totally fine). The only other reason I see was that the babies are relatively big (55 and 52 grams) and I noticed they were fighting each other a little so may be mother didn't have enough milk and got frustrated too.

In any case I will be more careful from now on, but i still need to weigh them and make sure they are OK. The foster moms feeding both their kits and their adopted ones. Their own babies are 2 weeks old and 4 weeks old. I have canned goat milk and rice cereal ready just in case (not mixed yet). I usually mix 1 can of goat milk + 1 can of water + table spoon or rice cereal to feed the babies if needed.
 
Wow how terrifying for you and the kits! :(
I don't have any advice to offer, but I'm glad they're ok and everything is going well with the new foster mom!

Keep us updated :)
 
I don't have any issues with my other females. I pick up babies the moment I discover them.... dry or still wet. My female was a first time mom, so I am thinking it was first time jitters. But, with this female I will wait a day or to before I handle her babies.
 
Sometimes squabbling can be the cause. Or mom's nipples could be tender to the latching process. Could defend herself from pain and lash out. Those teeth are sharp!
With my last litter ( quads ), the kits were at each others throats by day two. When I reached in to separate two away, one of them bit my finger and was hanging. Those teeth hurt! I can't imagine those teeth on a nipple. :no:
 
I had this happen recently myself, first time mother (though she was well into adulthood at 4yrs)...starting day one and any time I was near her cage for the first five weeks...she'd lash out badly at her kits. Bite, toss, thrash...finally just got used to leaving her be and not being near her cage. She did calm down once I'd walk away...so I made the decision to leave them on her and they're two months old now...but man! Some mommas can be scary crazy :(
 
I'm telling you, half of the decision was based on the fact that she never punctured...there was never any blood...but to see a mother take her newborn kit in her mouth and shake her head. All the while the kit is screaming bloody murder. It was horrifying. Same mother gave me a nice bite within a week of those kits being born. Like I said, I basically just fed her and left her alone. Oddly enough, the kits are SO sweet...placid and social. Heavily considering that being her first and last litter. Two nice XD ebonies...not worth the risk to the kits. Like I said, she never did draw blood...but it was a psychotic sight to see and the poor kits...they were trauma stricken by her actions. I felt terrible...but as I said, if she were left alone the kits were left alone...not the type of mother we all hope for though and definitely a female that one would reconsider breeding.
 
I am considering not breeding her anymore as well... but she had a kit before and she was a wonderful mom. I actually have her daughter who is one of the sweetest chinchillas I have ever had. The mom never bit me too and she seems OK now that they are not with her. The kits did bite me when I picked them up and they tried to bite their foster moms when being sniffed. I think they were just terrified they would get bitten so they had to react first. They are OK now, not biting and I am hand feeding them during the day here and there too. Don't seem like they really need it but I enjoy doing it and these little "squeakies" seem to like it too :)
 
I breed in trios. I had a Mother give birth to two beautiful kitsm a beige and a standard. several hours after the birth we heard a baby scream and wnt running. The mother was chasing around the other female and the beige baby was in a corner trying desperately to climb the cage. We pulled momma and baby. the baby was torn up around her left ear and the back of her neck with more bites on the face and head and went into shock. I took her and gave her just a few drops of goat's milk and she came around. We cleaned the little one up and gave her back to mom but put the other female in a separate cage. This female has always been in a trio and has never attacked a kit before. I think the baby may have tried to nurse from her and bit when there was no milk. The attacker is also pregnant so she may have been grumpy. It was a horrible thing to see. I hope it never happens again. I have not given up on the attacker, but if she does it again, I will pull her from breeding since all of my males are with 2 females and I don't like having one female hogging one male.
 
could be kits fighting over her nipples maybe milk was slow?could be a lot of things I would foster them out if possible
 
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