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[khaake]

Our 3-year-old female had triplets yesterday. Two weighed in at 40 grams and are active and healthy looking with eyes open (and maintained their birth weight today). The other (2nd born) only weighed in at 20 grams and had his eyes shut. I left all 3 in with mom as she seemed to be caring for them all, but discovered the runt left on its own this morning, cold and lethargic. I've been keeping it warm and syringe feeding today, as well as putting him back in with mom for short durations to try to reestablish nursing. Eyes opened today and he is starting to get around, and I was able to get mom to successfully nurse tonight. Now I have a couple questions, though: 1) How much time can I afford to put the runt in with mom/siblings before worrying about it getting too cold if she isn't interacting with him. 2) Do often do I reintroduce the two for nursing attempts vs. syringe feeding.

[chinclub]

You are doing a great job!

  I don't know if you know that chinchillas have two uterine horns.  This means they can get pregnant at two different times. When the full term babies are ready she often delivers all of the babies.  Because your 'runt' is only half the size of the others she is probably premature.  Does her hair appear a bit shorter than the other chinchillas?  Does her rear stick out a bit more than the others?  You need to prepare yourself for the possibility that she will not survive. I am not says that you shouldn't try.  There is no way to know how early she is.  If she is far enough along in development she will live, if not she will die no matter what you do.  Mothers can usually tell and will not give any attention to the babies they seem to know won't make it.

I can't give you a certain amount of time that will be safe to leave it with mom.  I would suggest 30 mins to start, but even with that I would keep an eye on them.  Young ones do chill fast and not knowing how old this one is puts a big question mark on its ability to maintain body heat.  You also want to keep an eye on the other babies.  They tend to fight the runts pretty bad sometimes.

[khaake]

Thank you for your response. He is holding on, but I don't have great hopes for him. The mom will lick him a little, but she isn't letting him nurse, and tends to push him away. the siblings also push him away, so I am separating them from the cage when I try to introduce the runt back in. At this point I'm still syringe feeding every 2 hours, but I have to move his mouth to get him to "chew" the milk, so I'm not optimistic. Thankfully the other 2 kits seem very healthy, putting on 5 grams & 6 grams since yesterday. But I'll keep plugging away at runt.

[khaake]

Well, after 2 days of dropper feeding every 2-3 hours, runt passed away today. Thankful that the other two seem to be doing well with mom, at least!

[GrayRodent]

I'm glad to hear the others are healthy. Sorry for your loss.

[chinclub]

I'm so sorry. No matter how many years I do this, losing a baby never gets any easier. At least you can know that you did everything you could have possibly done.