Still born Kit

[Lolaris]

I have had several successful litters over the last 4 years, but recently I had 2 stillborn kits from two separate females. Both of the females had 2 kits and one of each were stillborn. I am wondering what went wrong and if anyone has any advise. The live kits are both healthy and doing well and the mothers are both healthy and of proper weight and size as well as the fathers.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Are you sure the babies were stillborn? Sometimes if a kit is born with problems the mom just leaves it and it dies shortly after birth. Often times stillborn kits are dead because they were caught in the birth canal for too long. This is fairly common in first time mothers especially if the first time mom is a little older or smaller.

There's also the phenomenon with chinchillas where they can experience a double pregnancy. They can be pregnant in each uterine horn at different times causing them to have a full term baby and then a stillborn premature baby.

 

[Lolaris]

Thank you for your quick response. I am not positive it was still born as I saw it shortly after she had given birth. It was laying flat and stretched out in the cage with mom standing over it like she was trying to keep it warm. I did not see any damage and it looked fully formed. Both mom and kits were still a bit bloody and wet. This is her second time as a mom. The first time (about 6 months ago) she had twin standard females that were both healthy. The one that was dead was a standard and the living kit is a white or pink white. I was a little worried because this is my second time breeding color to color. In the past I have always breed color to standard and I have been fortunate not to loose a kit for in my 4 years of breeding until the last 2 months.

 

[tunes]

Do you separate the male? Flat can sometimes mean the dad tried to breedback and the kit got smashed during the attempt.

 

[Lolaris]

not this time. I could tell she was pregnant, but I didn't realize how far along she was. I separated her and the live kit into a baby safe cage immediately, the dead kit that was laying stretched out did not seem trampled, I looked him over pretty thoroughly to try and figure out what could have went wrong, but it is a possibility. I know that immediately after giving birth females are very susceptible to breed backing and I separate my females with kits from the males....The other kit that was dead last month was a different story. The pregnant female was separated into a baby safe cage and my husband found mom and the live kit in the cage and a half eaten baby....I just assumed he was defective in some way or still born, as she has been a very good mother in the past and had over 4 successful pregnancies with no problem. She is also doing great with her live baby Caramel (Mel for short). Has anyone experienced something like this before?

 

[tunes]

Has anyone experienced something like this before?

Anybody who has had more than a couple litters has experienced this. It's just the way it goes sometimes. It sucks, but it's the nature of the beast.

 

[Lolaris]

gotcha guess I was just lucky before. We had 13 sets born to different parents, 11 with no problem and the last two not so lucky. I guess complications were bound to happen eventually just nature I guess. How often do people normally experience complications with kits. 1/20 1/150? more less?

 

[mishalaa]

I don't think anyone has exact numbers, but I can say 1/150 is way off the mark. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say more like 1/10.

 

[Lolaris]

ok just want to have an idea of what is a normal range.

 

[starleomach]

on average I belive is it 20% of kits will not survive birth. If you breed it will happen eventually. and it always seems to come in bunches. I can go several months with no birthing issues and then have several at once. Most of the time if they don't make it and you were to open them up you would see the reason. I know of a few "stillborns" that had under developed lungs or something similar