First off, it still seems to me that Toni must have
been a bit premature; I didn't mark down when I put Toni and Jack together
(so shoot me), but I remember that Julia's Lee was noticibly pregnant at
the time. Toni had her litter only a few days after Lee had hers
(??), on 8/29.
There were twelve originally, but Toni wouldn't
settle down to feed them. She obviously had "mothering instincts";
she built a nest before having her litter and almost bit me more than once!
But she wouldn't sit down with them. This is the first problem like
this I've had; it definately seems like a "first-time" mother thing to
me, probably only made worse by the fact that Toni's a little old to be
a first-time mother, and the fact that because she was earlier than expected
I had to upset the cage *after* she had her littler instead of before;
removing Jack and Billie, trying to clean around the nest area (I didn't
dare clean the entire cage) etc.
In any case, I kept trying to get her to nurse the
babies; at one point I put all the babies in a bowl, and set her on top
of them... she actually sat there and nursed for a while, but then walked
away. I put her back in the cage, and whever she settled down to
groom or sleep I'd tuck a couple babies under her - she probably got quite
annoyed with me! - in any case, all she'd do is sit there a few seconds
and then walk off.
After quite a few hours of this, the babies were
getting very cold, so I placed them in my baby bird brooder (for you non-bird
people, it's like an incubator to keep young baby birds warm), and fell
asleep for a few hours (at this point it was six AM and I hadn't slept
the night before). When I woke up the babies were warmer, but getting
pretty weak from lack of food. I had tried to hand-feed them with
a syringe and the plastic casing off the wire from a pair of headphones
(a set-up that's worked for me previously, on older rats), but they wouldn't
accept it.
Toni had made a nest in a corner of the cage, and
she was dozing. I tried again to place the babies under; she stayed
put, and eventually some of the stronger ones started nuzzling for food;
she was curled up, not the best posture for nursing, but at least she wasn't
leaving! She started grooming herself, and this eventually led to
grooming the babies; you could almost see it dawn on her face... "gee,
these things aren't so bad!". In any case, she's been the model mother
since!
Unfortunately, many of the babies didn't get the
food soon enough; five out of the twelve died soon after... a sixth lasted
a while, but eventually weakened and died.
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