8 beautiful baby degus! do i need to help them feed?

3153 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Sasami, Aug 20, 2012

jaydee88

Discussion Starter · Aug 19, 2012

Hi guys! Thanks for reading.
I have a little problem... my degu king Julien the second died last week while being castrated at the vets. His widow Dobby was heavily pregnant with his babies. I wanted to get him done before their arrival so he could stay with his mate... heartbroken... completely!
Anyway this morning at 6am Dobby gave birth to 8 beautiful babies. I'm so proud of her. I'm sure daddy would be.
Because theres so many of them do I need to help her with the feeding and give the babies some puppy formula?
Thankyou
Jess
Xoxox

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Sasami

· #2 · Aug 19, 2012

I'm so sorry for your loss

.

Wow, 8 babies! Mom might be able to do it alone but to check if they're getting milk, feel their bellies and maybe weigh them each day with a gram scale. They should be gaining 1 or 2 grams per day at this age.

Here is a guide on hand-raising pups if necessary: http://www.degutopia.co.uk/deguhandr.htm

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16degus

· #3 · Aug 19, 2012

First, my sincere condolences on the passing of king Julien the second. That's so, so tragic. You were doing the right thing.

Second, congratulations to Dobby and her new arrivals. No, you should not need to help her with the feeding other than making sure she is eating enough food. Provide her with unlimited food and give her extra energy in the form of rolled oats. (Don't give the babies pupply formula. For more help re: the babies, it might be worth checking out degu-specific forums like the Degu and Chinchilla World forum or Degutopia).

Good luck with the babies. Please keep us posted as to their progress.

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jaydee88

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 20, 2012

Thanks guys. I read on degutopia that you use lactol puppy formula to hand rear the babies. She seems to be doing fine with them but I just wondered if I should supplement it with extra feeds incase one or two aren't getting a teat quick enough as there's only one teat per pup. How am I going to tell which ones are putting weight on or not though... I can't tell them apart! Or would they all be the same weight ish? She also gave birth to a beautiful blue one!! Are those colour ones rare?

I can't help but blame myself about King Julien II. I wish I'd never taken him and just separated them at birth. I just thought this way would be less stressful for all parties as he was very skittish and hard to catch. And I'm not around all the time to notice her giving birth

so if I weren't there I didn't want her to be in danger of getting pregnant again

Looking back I should have just separated him and left him in a separate cage in the last days of pregnancy. I just really didn't want her to be separated from her mate... they were close

Xoxox

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16degus

· #5 · Aug 20, 2012

Please don't blame yourself for what happened to King Julien II. You were doing the right thing – giving him the chance to help rear his pups and giving Dobby the chance to have help raising them. If he was not neutered, he would never be able to be with Dobby or any of his daughters ever again.

It should not have ended like this – a tragic outcome that you had no control of and no one could have foreseen. My heart goes out to you.

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Sasami

· #6 · Aug 20, 2012

jaydee88 said:
Thanks guys. I read on degutopia that you use lactol puppy formula to hand rear the babies. She seems to be doing fine with them but I just wondered if I should supplement it with extra feeds incase one or two aren't getting a teat quick enough as there's only one teat per pup. How am I going to tell which ones are putting weight on or not though... I can't tell them apart! Or would they all be the same weight ish? She also gave birth to a beautiful blue one!! Are those colour ones rare?

I can't help but blame myself about King Julien II. I wish I'd never taken him and just separated them at birth. I just thought this way would be less stressful for all parties as he was very skittish and hard to catch. And I'm not around all the time to notice her giving birth so if I weren't there I didn't want her to be in danger of getting pregnant again
Looking back I should have just separated him and left him in a separate cage in the last days of pregnancy. I just really didn't want her to be separated from her mate... they were close
Xoxox

You could use a nontoxic marker to mark each baby a different color

. Blue is an uncommon color, not really rare, but definitely cool

.

Please don't blame yourself, it was a freak accident

. It's supposed to be a simple surgery but like with any surgery, you never know. Most likely he had something else wrong already. If not neutered, he couldn't have gone back with her anyway. I know it's natural for us to blame ourselves for these things but it definitely wasn't your fault at all. You were doing the right thing.

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