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[z168]

My Cleo just gave birth to 2 babies just a few minutes ago. Their cage isnt kit proofed yet. So i put the 2 babies in a box on the base of the cage. The mother doesnt want to go down from her house high up the cage

I also watched Tony the father and he quickly jumped in the box wih them. He seems to be licking them.

How do i care and what do i feed them?

[dianah]

congratulations!

the mum should do all the feeding. you could take high shelves out so mum would have no choice but to stay down. it is important the babies have either mum or dad to snuggle up to so they keep warm.

if mum keeps running away from them, have her checked by a vet - there's a chance she has mastitis and as the babies have a full set of teeth, it can get quite painful with them trying to get milk out of already sore boob.
don't worry if she doesn't nurse for the first day or so as the milk might not have come in yet.

you need to weigh the babies every day if you can - the best way is to get a scale that weighs in grams so you'll see if they're losing weight (again, it's normal for them to lose a couple of grams in the first 48 hours but after that they should be steadily putting 1-2g on every day) in which case you will have to supplement feeding. with only two kits though, you should be ok and hopefully mum should do all the work. if not, let us know, we'll help out with hand feeding1

[dianah]

oh, goodness, forgot to say - sorry, was focusing on the babies - you need to take the dad out for a few days to prevent breedback. females go into heat straight after giving birth and will get pregnant if male is left in with mum.

[z168]

Thanks Diana, good thing you mentioned the 2nd post. And I did see him all over her so I separated them now. I will remove the shelving as well that was good advise.

I still did put in a water bottle just incase

[jmdebb]

congrats to you.. .if you can get pics can you post them... please

thanks

[dianah]

i remember asking people at work whether babies (human) drink water but apparently they only drink milk. you will see your little ones sampling mummy's food quite soon though.

you can help mum's milk by adding a bottle of diluted unsweetend apple juice (1 part juice, 1 part water) or cranberry juice (i'm only ever able to find concentrate as all other cranberry juice is sweetened so if that's all you can find as well, you'll only need tiny bit of cranberry concentrate mixed with a lot of water) - just make sure she's got water bottle as well.

i would treat her as pregnant for the next 120 days just to be on the safe side - my fluffy got pregnant the day she gave birth (we had no idea she was a girl, by the time we found out we had babies and more on the way!) but it was impossible to detect the pregnancy until the last couple of weeks. she's due on monday so hopefully we'll have healthy gorgeous babies soon. you could help her out by giving her a calcium supplement and a teaspoon of oats twice a week will give her a boost as well.

and.. pictures!

[z168]

Thanks for the replies. Will take pics and post 

[dianah]

how are they doing?

[z168]

how are they doing?

sorry for the late reply and I apologize for not having pics up yet. I have since kit-proofed the cage. However I did notice 1 of them (Peanut) is doing well and interacting with the mom and me when I pick him up. however the other one (plankton) wasnt as lively and as perky as Peanut. Since last week I had to constantly put him under the mom and up until yesterday he has not opened his eyes yet. I also noticed Peanut has grown to almost 2x as big as Plankton. Early morning Sunday I found Plankton's lifeless body

[z168]

I have a couple more questions:
1. when can I reunite the mom and dad in the cage?
2. when do I start to put a water bottle within the babies' reach?

[dianah]

oh no, so sorry to hear that

i think 5 days after birth is ok but wait for someone else to confirm as i've never done that. dad and baby should be ok but observe them for a little bit at first just to make sure.

as for the water bottle... there's no harm in doing that now.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Yes 5 days but watch to see if the scent is still lingering. If he starts mounting her take him out for another couple of days.
Make sure the kit has somewhere to hide so mom and dad can't accidentally jump on him.
And yes move the water bottle down a bit.

[z168]

thanks for the info. I am so sad that I lost the other baby 

I will put dad back in the cage today and see how it goes

[Courtney]

Im so sorry you lost the baby.  Breeding can be really tough.