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Author Topic: Kits  (Read 4108 times)

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akaangela

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Kits
« on: September 26, 2010, 01:42:40 AM »

Hi. I adopted a pair of chins in July. I was told the male was fixed and that the female had not been introduced to an intact male. Well today I woke up and heard some funny noises from the cage. I looked in and found Gwennie on the bottom of her cage with two tails sticking out of her sides. Well she wasn't making any noise but under her something was making funny sounds. Yep she had two kits.


 Should I supplement Gwennie's diet? She is getting Mazuie pellets and Timothy hay, with alfalfa once a week. The kits are noisy, is that normal? LOL The sound is so cute  ;) What else do I need to know? Can I handle them right away? They are up and hopping around.  I broke down and picked up and weighed them.  Girl one was 54g and second girl was 58g, and mom was fine with it.  Little  girl already trying to climb up the side of cage and she is not even 12 hours old and SO soft :)


I only got photos of one girl and I can't tell them apart very well.  I am going to do a proper photo session tomorrow.  Should I weigh them every day? 

Thanks so much for the help.
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dianah

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Re: Kits
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2010, 09:58:39 AM »

those are fantastic weights! baby looks beautiful :)

i am an accidental gran too. you need to take the male out for a few days - if they are his babies and he's still fertile, you could have more on the way as the ladies go into heat after giving birth. when we found out fluffy was a girl (we thought we had two boys), we had three babies and she was already pregnant with another baby (we took the dad out the same day).

weigh them every day - that way you'll know if there's something wrong. fluffy had mastitis after the first litter and was unable to nurse so we had to take over for a couple of weeks until she healed. babies do make noises and so does mum so don't be alarmed. also,they will most likely lose a few grams in the first two days as the milk can take up to 24 hours to come in, after that, they should be steadily putting on.
you can handle them straight away, chinnies don't reject the babies if there's 'wrong' smells on them. for the first few days it's probably a good idea to keep handling to weighing but you can increase the handling time later on. some first time mums are possessive, mine was perfectly happy for me to handle the babies as much as i liked.

you could give mum an additional water bottle with 1/2 unsweetened cranberry or baby apple juice 1/2 water - this will help with milk production and can help prevent mastitis.
you could also give her a spoon of oats mixed with a spoon of wheatgerm twice a week to give her a bit of a boost. i think her diet is already great so well done.

it might be a good idea to have the male checked out at the vets, it could have been a different male as she was already pregnant when you got her, they also may have put the male in with the girl too soon after neutering and he was still fertile.

enjoy the babies :)
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dianah

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Re: Kits
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2010, 10:18:15 AM »

oh, i forgot to say - they are little monkeys and will manage to climb up shelves (as you said, your girl's already climbing up the walls) and then not know how to get down. you could take shelves out so you end up with a single level (this also means mum will always be near the babies) or - i did this  - i took the ledges out and moved the shelves around so only mum & dad could jump that high.

they also very much like to escape - when we found ours, one of them was out of the cage!!! - but from the picture i think the mesh on your cage looks quite safe! 
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jmdebb

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Re: Kits
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2010, 07:39:45 PM »

congrats.. if any are boys you need to take them out at 8 weeks of age, because they can impregnant mom.

if you have any shelves in the cage, they should be taken out so mom doesn't jump off them and land on a kit and hurt them.. you will notice very shortly they will be picking on food and hay, that is okay do not worry about that..  not sure bout handling them, the first few days anything can happen, i was told once by a breeder , that after the third day and they tail goes up, they are healthy and then you can handle them.. 

if the wire openings are 1" they will escape when the get moving around...

gotta go sosrry
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Debbie.nl.ca

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Re: Kits
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2010, 07:32:31 AM »

Congrats  ::kiss99::
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1newChinmom1

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Re: Kits
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2010, 02:43:46 PM »

We are so very happy for you! Congratulations and Happy birthday to your little cuties!
 ::birthday:: ::gobananago:: ::partyblow:: ::dancingspot::
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