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urgent advice needed orphaned babies

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arnettobrien

arnettobrien

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advice needed on how to care for two 12 day old babies.(my sow died very suddenly yesterday.) They are both eating solid food. i do not know the best way to get them to drink. I have not seen them drinking on their own. have put a shallow water bowl in their cage and keep taking them to it. have also tried getting them to drink from a water bottle. can anyone advise me if I need to supplement them and with what.

i am also trying to get them to the pdsa to be checked over


thanks
 
I don't know a lot about babies but I thought they are fine on there own very quickly, someone else will come along soon, good luck
 
oh no, i have no advice either, just wanted to say sorry about mum, and good luck with the babies x
 
I have found full fat Goat's milk to be best for babies, warmed like you would for a baby. It's best not to use a syringe as it is easy to syringe it into their lungs by mistake, so use a teaspoon and sit them on your lap with a towel and let them lap it from the tip of the spoon (keep the spoon lower than their head).

Or you can soak bread in the milk in a shallow dish and they should take it like that. You'll need to do this frequently. They may not be able to drink from a water bottle yet.

They will also need to be kept warm - either a hot water bottle (with a towel and space so they can move away if too warm) or a Snugglesafe pad.

Are they pooping for themselves? If not you will need to use a wet cotton bud to clean them up and stimulate their poop after a feed.

Sorry the mum died, what was the problem?

Sophie
x
 
sophiew said:
Or you can soak bread in goat's milk in a shallow dish and they should take it like that. You'll need to do this frequently. They may not be able to drink from a water bottle yet.

They will also need to be kept warm - either a hot water bottle (with a towel and space so they can move away if too warm) or a Snugglesafe pad.

Are they pooping for themselves? If not you will need to use a wet cotton bud to clean them up and stimulate their poop after a feed.

Sorry the mum died, what was the problem?

Sophie
x
Click to expand...

In addition to Sophie's suggestions I would offer the nuggets soaked in a little warm water to soften them, this will ensure they are getting the correct balance of nutrients (I use Excel). At this age they are fairly independant and should eat a fair bit and it will also hydrate them a little too - perhaps put a block to stand on under the water bottle so they can explore and find it easily.

Best of luck

Suzy x
 
You've been given some excellent advice already :)

I'm wondering if you have another piggy who would sit with them ? Dosen't have to be a nursing sow, any piggy who will share a cage with them would do - quite often this can help them to learn to drink from a water bottle etc as they will copy the older piggy :)

Teresa xx
 
Oh I'm sorry to hear about mum :(. I would also have suggested soaking the pellets in warm water. Hope the babies are ok. Good luck with them :)
 
hi you have already been given some fabulous advice i hand reared chipmunks and used kitten milk not sure if that would be ok for piggies soak bread in it an they should eat it plus i would soak the nuggets in warm water

what happened to the mum ? so sorry to hear you lost her good luck xxxxx
 
thanks for all the advice.

the mum pip died on tuesday. she was fine in the morning. i gave her extra hay and some fresh food as we were going out. when we got back my daughter carried the babies out to put them on the run on the lawn and then went back for pip. pip could not stand up. she died in my arms within about a minute.

we took the babies too the vet to get them checked over and she gave me some kitten milk. the little boy called "squeak" loves it but the smaller girl "pickle" is not so keen. the vet gave us a syringe which the boy loves and suckles even when it was empty. i will try both of them with a spoon today. have tried soaking their dry food but they didn't eat as they prefer it dry.we have also put the water bottle on the side of cage so that they can get used to it.

we have tried them with are two old females, but both of the females acted aggressively. it was a shame because at first the babies were delighted and ran around them squeaking.

we also have an older male called horatio that we tried them with. Horatio was more friendly than the adult females but he kept sniffing them and then to mate with them. not sure if they still smell of their mum.

I'm going to try to keep horatio near to the babies so that they can see each other as next thursday the babies will need separating as they will be three weeks old. so the boy will hopefully move in with horatio.

looks like the girl will be on her own. i was hoping to keep her and her mum together.
 
Am so sorry for your loss. Where abouts are you? maybe a local rescue may have the perfect companion for the baby girl?
 
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