TF3
Well-known member
Curious...
Holly delivered 11 kits on Wednesday morning.
10 in the nest, 1 stretched and on the wire.
The 10 living are small (she was only at day 29) ~ her mom Clover delivered last night, only 5 kits, on her due date~ twice the size of Holly's (same sire).
I'm assuming litter size makes the size difference plus the early birth?
(Clover's kits at birth you can tell which are broken red because they have enough fuzz, Holly's are all super pink, no fuzz.)
Today we checked Holly's nest, and the babies were not full tummied and they were popping and squeaking like crazy.
I think our disturbance reminded them they were hungry.
It seemed odd, since Holly has been a great mom (her last/first litter was 11 fatties).
Then at lunch I went out, and at the front of the nest was a kit~ cold and dead.
My first thought was it got pulled out after nursing, but it was stretched, flat, and blood had pooled in its rear half.
We dug in to check the remaining 9 kits... but there were 10!
And we were thorough in our previous count.
I took another look at the dead kit...it had a little blood by the umbilicus.
I am guessing it was a retained kit? She must have tried to deliver it in the nest.
By supper all the kits in the nest were bursting with full tummies...
if she had a retained kit, could/would she not nurse the others?
Holly delivered 11 kits on Wednesday morning.
10 in the nest, 1 stretched and on the wire.
The 10 living are small (she was only at day 29) ~ her mom Clover delivered last night, only 5 kits, on her due date~ twice the size of Holly's (same sire).
I'm assuming litter size makes the size difference plus the early birth?
(Clover's kits at birth you can tell which are broken red because they have enough fuzz, Holly's are all super pink, no fuzz.)
Today we checked Holly's nest, and the babies were not full tummied and they were popping and squeaking like crazy.
I think our disturbance reminded them they were hungry.
It seemed odd, since Holly has been a great mom (her last/first litter was 11 fatties).
Then at lunch I went out, and at the front of the nest was a kit~ cold and dead.
My first thought was it got pulled out after nursing, but it was stretched, flat, and blood had pooled in its rear half.
We dug in to check the remaining 9 kits... but there were 10!
And we were thorough in our previous count.
I took another look at the dead kit...it had a little blood by the umbilicus.
I am guessing it was a retained kit? She must have tried to deliver it in the nest.
By supper all the kits in the nest were bursting with full tummies...
if she had a retained kit, could/would she not nurse the others?
