baby has been bitten advice please

[bigship]

Hi I am new to this forum but have been recommended it from moneysavingexpert. I brought 2 females from a pet shop about 6 weeks ago unexpectedly they have both now given birth one Cuddles has a baby called fluff (10 days old) and the other lily had two (7 days old). One of Lilys babies was limping a few days ago and not looking very well, ( I seperated the two mothers and babies as from the upside down house I could tell there had been a scuffle) in the morning I went to check on it and could find no sign of it at all. That was over the weekend I have kept families seperate but put them together for 1/2 an hour yesterday whilst I cleaned out the cage. Today I found the other baby (Jelly Baby) has a large bite I have made an appointment at the vet for 1500 today but it looks very serious and she does not look well. I do not know for sure which mother bit her I think it was not her mother as she is nursing it and cleaning the wound.

Until I get them sexed and hopefully jelly baby recovers I am unsure what to do, the babies need to know each other from what I have read if they are both males so they will not fight. sorry for the long message but I dont know what to do for the best

 

[Kringeldec]

You have done the right thing by getting them into the Vet. I'm not sure what else to suggest as none of mine have ever had babies.

Someone on here will be able to help x Good Luck x

 

[Wiebke]

Good that you have got a vet appointment! I am sorry that things went pearshaped for the little one.

Keep the baby boys separate with their mums until they need to leave their mums at three weeks old and they can live together; there will no problem with them not bonding! Mums can be very protective of their babies and aggressive towards "strangers" in their territory; you should never leave them unsupervised when mixing.

You may find that your two girls won't go back to living together easily immediately after losing their boys. Give them some respite time on their own before introducing them again on neutral territory with all the trimmings.

 

[bigship]

Thanks for the advice Jelly bean was not as badly bitten as I had feared - he (confirmed) has been given a steroid injection and I have antibiotics in a syringe to give him for the next 5 days. the vet shaved a bit of his fur and although quite a large wound it is not too deep.
I will get the older one (fluff) sexed in the next few days and then I will know where I am going with them. The problem being I have a two tier hutch which I have put the stairs up to keep the two families apart. I am going to have to get another hutch to keep the boy (s)? in after 4 weeks as I cannot put the two mothers back together straight away. I have requested that the pet shop I got them for supply me a hutch at cost and so far they have been quite helpful.
Having just re read your post Wiebke I see you say seperate the males at 3 weeks I have heard varing times from 4 -6 weeks can they bred at 3 weeks - in which case I only have 1 week to sort out living arrangments!

 

[Suzygpr]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Wean baby boys away from mum no earlier than 21 days, their weight has reached 250g and they are practicing mating. If they are small babies and not showing much interest in mating you can leave them for a little longer until they get to weaning weight, max would be 5 weeks old. If they are particularly small 200g is the minimum weight they should be to leave mum. The earliest recorded mating which resulted in a pregnancy was 24 days though this is extremely unusual. They must be eating solid food and drinking from the water bottle so that they are capable of be independant.

If you intend to rehome the babies you should wait until they are a minimum of 6 weeks, weigh 400g+ and are in good health. Minimum cage size for a pair is 120cm x 60cm. Ideally babies should be living indoors once separated from mum so that they are in a more stable temp overnight.

If you are keeping them then they should bond well once they leave mum, the mums may take a while to accept each other, though hopefully will be happy to do so once their hormones have settled.

HTH

Suzy x