Some of you may remember the litter I lost, well... a month ago now, due to cold weather and a poor nest? I thought long and hard about why I lost that litter and felt that it could have been avoided had I checked on her more consistently. I heard lots of people having litters at colder temps than we are having right now so I figured I would let her have one more shot. And with a little help from me in making sure they make it into the fur in the nest that they would have half a chance. I also took a few other extra steps to help her out. I lined the bottom of the nest box with cardboard with a few small holes poked in it, STUFFED the nest box with straw and after she spent the first day sitting in the nest box and using it as a litter box I added a bunch of extra straw to the corner of her cage for her to sit on instead of IN the nest box! Well it seems like I was able to pull it off. Yesterday was day 31 and with the last litter she pulled fur and then had the litter within the next few hours so I knew that when she started pulling fur babies would be close behind. I checked on her first thing when I got home from work but no progress. I checked on her throughout the night and at about 9:30 she was frantically pulling fur and stuffing it in the nest box. Then, by my 10:00 check she was in the box delivering and at about 10:20 she was out of the box so I got a good look/feel. There were a few babies in a bit fur in the back that were warm and then four up front on the bare straw that were getting cold. One was already dead and after warming it was still dead. Cleaned out the nest a bit and put the others that were still moving into the fur with the warm babies and fluffed a few handfuls of cotton balls and "tucked" them all in hoping for the best...
... AND I had a nest full of warm wriggly popples this morning! :cheer1:
... AND I had a nest full of warm wriggly popples this morning! :cheer1:
