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PaperMoon

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Okay, long story short...my roommate loved my chinchillas and wanted to get one. She got a female ebony violet carrier (just like mine!) and turns out she was preggers and gave birth to 2 on 11/11, one boy, one girl. We called the place we got her from and turns out father is a beige vc. Baby girl was 41g (at birth) and now is 52g and the baby boy was 45g (at birth) and now is 46g. He's lost to 44g for 3 days and gained back the weight and has been a steady 46g for 3 days with plus/minus 1g every once in a while.

We read all the FAQs and threads that have been floating around...and our questions...:

- Should we be worried about the baby boy? His tummy feels warm but not as round as the baby girls. He is active and runny around making cute squeaky sounds. What's going on with his weight? He is suppose to be gaining weight!!

- Is there a way to check how much milk the mom is producing? We put in an apple/water mix (and also another bottle of H2O) in her cage but she is not drinking much of the apple/water.

- We have been looking for goats milk, but can't find any here... We live in Davis, California so the only places are Target, Walmart, and the Nugget (which we haven't checked yet). If the Nugget doesn't have goats milk, is there another alternative?

- Baby rice cereal? I don't really understand what 'baby rice cereal' is. Can someone give me some examples of names? Which aisle would I find it?

- Last but not least, what color are they? We can't decide...we need help from a more trained eye when it comes to things like this :). The mother is ebony vc and father is beige vc.
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This is the baby boy named Padfoot @ 44g.
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This is the baby girl named Luna @ 43g. She is actually a shade darker than this. The pictures keep on making her turn white even without flash...the color you see on her butt end is the color of her whole body from head to toe.

Sorry for sooo many questions!! :wacko: Any advice is welcome too!!
 
Do you notice the girl pushing him away from mom, that he doesnt get as much milk? I would definetly look into supplementing him (and or rotating if the sister is too pushy), and continue to weigh him daily. As for the colors, the boy looks ebony/standard, and the female looks beige, maybe tan. Good luck with them, and keep us posted.
 
no, the girl is not pushy or bossy, but I"ll try rotating just to see if it makes a difference.
 
They should have the can's of goat's milk at the Walmart, if they have groceries at that Walmart. I've seen it there before. Any well stocked grocery should have it over by the powdered milk. The baby rice cereal is over on the baby product aisle by the baby food.

I've used soy milk for babies before, it works pretty well. If the kits are nursing a little on their own, you just need to supplement a couple times a day. They really need to start gaining weight.

Kits will go for a day or two without gaining and then have a growth spurt. My average kit gains 20 to 23 grams in the first week, but that's with everything going perfectly. Sometimes the new mom doesn't produce enough and will need a couple weeks to catch up...that first litter seems to be the toughest.

As for the apple juice in the bottle, I'd just take that down and give the mom good, clean water. She's nursing them because they have gained a bit...so she is making milk, she just needs to catch up their demand and make more. She probably will start producing more milk very soon, but I'd definitely help out a bit with supplementing the kits.

I agree...the boy looks like a standard and the girl looks like a beige (I can see it in her eyes.)
 
Okays!! I will check out walmart for goats milk-- until then, I will rotate them and see how it works!! x) thanks for all the help!!
 
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