Over half of the litter dead.
Hello,
My first posy here and unfortunately it's a sad one. This mother most likely isn't a first time mom. She had 5 babies alive and 7 dead by the time I found the litter. Can anyone think of a reason why?
https://ibb.co/gV4dKBN
Re: Over half of the litter dead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Christopherreptile
First 5 came out fine, #6 got stuck in the birthing canal and resulted in the remainder being born deceased.
Sometimes this is bad luck, sometimes this is due to the female being overweight and/or old.
Re: Over half of the litter dead.
Interesting, thanks for the help, I'm trying to figure out how to insert an image, one of the babies does look sort of deformed. I feed rodent block with "rat mix" (sunflower seeds, corn, etc) mixed in the bedding every change. I've had aprx 8 other females give healthy litters ~8 pups several times. The blocked canal makes sense. An interesting behavior I noticed was that she was "stealing" almost fully weaned pups from her roommates litter she had been living with for weeks before the birth. I keep no more than 3 females per cement tub and 1 male to cycle through them
Re: Over half of the litter dead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Christopherreptile
Interesting, thanks for the help, I'm trying to figure out how to insert an image, one of the babies does look sort of deformed. I feed rodent block with "rat mix" (sunflower seeds, corn, etc) mixed in the bedding every change. I've had aprx 8 other females give healthy litters ~8 pups several times. The blocked canal makes sense. An interesting behavior I noticed was that she was "stealing" almost fully weaned pups from her roommates litter she had been living with for weeks before the birth. I keep no more than 3 females per cement tub and 1 male to cycle through them
Babies get injured, even killed, when moms fight over them- their fragile bodies aren't designed for "tug-o-war". I'd recommend no more than 2 females kept together to minimize that, & be ready to separate them if they don't work out- some are great together, but not all. Baby-stealing is common.