New babies for Hermione - born 6th April 2011

[jennyb]

Hi, here are Hermione's new babies, born 11.23pm wednesday night

First a few pictures of Hermione pregnant

1. 18 days pregnant
2. 3 weeks pregnant
3. 25 days pregnant
4. 27 days pregnant
5 & 6. 29 days pregnant
7. 30 days pregnant
8. morning of the birth 31 days pregnant.

Hermione and Asriel mated 6th March and after a 31 day gestation Hermione gave birth to her babies.

This is the first look at the babies, i only just quickly checked them over and weighed them.

There are 3 boys and 3 girls

they are 7 1/2 cm and weigh 8g, one girl seems to be the runt she is smaller about 6cm and she weighs 7g.

They all look well and were wriggling around alot. While i looked at them Hermione was given a treat she didn't seem too concerned. After i put them back she continued eating her treats then after abit she went in with them. The babies squeak alot these babies are louder than her first litter even with the TV on we can hear the squeaks.

[jennyb]

Here are a few pictures from yesterday the babies one week old. The babies are all about 8 1/2cms. They all weigh 12g apart from one boy who is 11g and the smallest girl who is 10g. The squeaking is becoming less they seem to be more silent during the day when mum isn't in the nest but still squeak quite abit during the night. They are making other sounds aswell. Already i can see white fur on all 6, three have the slightest hint of white fur i had to look closely to see the fur. The other three the fur is slightly longer.

[Sarah-Jane]

They are lovely Jen! Can I ask why you weigh ur babies?! Xx

[Marci]

Hi Sarah Jane -

I have to butt in regarding your question to JennyB about weighing the babies.

I am in the US and have been raising a siberian male who has congenital problems.  JennyB and Martyn have helped me out a lot.  Jenny and I talked about writing a book together regarding the siberians.  I suggested to Jenny to buy a food scale so she can monitor any sick chips or newborns.  Losing weight is one of the first signs of an illness. 

By JennyB gathering info regarding the weights of her new litter every week will give inexperienced chippie breeders or owners an idea of what to expect.

All the books I have read vary so much regarding the weight range for a chippie.  So as an example, Buddy has lost more weight and he only weighs 66 grams in the morning.  He is almost a year old.  Is this the low end of the weight for what I am guessing the runt of the litter?  Who knows?  so maybe if more owners and breeders kept some records, I would have more information about Buddy.

Hope this helps,

Marci

[jennyb]

Hi Sarah,
I weigh the babies because i like to keep a record of how the babies grow up and since one is a runt i can see she is gaining weight, its really just for interest and then i can compare the results of these babies with last years babies. They all look healthy so thats good.

Hi Marci,
Buddy is small maybe a runt its hard to say without seeing the rest of his siblings. Hermione's girls from last year are all over 100g, Lottie was the runt last year but she caught up with her siblings and now you can't tell. This year Hermione has a new runt and its also a girl, she's not much smaller than her siblings though at the moment.

[jennyb]

The babies will be two weeks old tonight. Heres a few pics from monday and yesterday.

Hermione's babies already look much more white and they look so big already. All are putting on weight and doing great.

Boy one: 9 1/2 cm 16g
boy two: 10 1/2 cm 17g
boy three: 10 1/2cm 17/18g
girl one: 10cm 17g
girl two: 10cm 17g
girl three: 9 1/2cm 15g

Last pic is from yesterday already i can see stripes


Hermione's daughter Lottie has just had babies too 

[jennyb]

Babies now two weeks old,

Baby boy 11cm 22g
baby boy 11cm 20g
baby boy 11cm 20g
baby girl 11cm 21g
baby girl 11 1/2cm 23g
baby girl 10 1/2cm 20g

the babies also were moving around alot more

[jennyb]

A few pictures of Hermione's 15 day old babies with Lottie's tiny 4 day old pinkies

Hermione's are already crawling around alot, next to Lottie's they look so big.

[pinkpill]

oh lotties defo look brown ones 

[Marci]

Jenny -

Your photos are so awesome.  From across the pond over here in the US, I really feel that between the photos and your posts, I can almost reach out and feel your experiences.  Thank you so much for sharing. 

Marci

[Sarah-Jane]

I see. Just in all my time I have never thought of weighing them.. Does ur mother not mind?? X pip I know wont let me near for at least a week after birth... even tho we have a special bond.. Do u intervene if needed? Say if one is smaller? I have on one litter, as she had 9 babies, and one baby I don't think was getting a good feed, so i have bonded with her, she had a feed with me every 4 hours as a top up! Would u do the same if needed? Weight wise? X

[jennyb]

oh lotties defo look brown ones 

Thanks Pinkpill, i think they are too, i've had a look at other Agouti pics and thats what i think they look like.

Jenny -

Your photos are so awesome.  From across the pond over here in the US, I really feel that between the photos and your posts, I can almost reach out and feel your experiences.  Thank you so much for sharing. 

Marci

Thats ok i'm glad i have the camcorder for really close-up shots.

see. Just in all my time I have never thought of weighing them.. Does ur mother not mind?? X pip I know wont let me near for at least a week after birth...  even tho we have a special bond.. Do u intervene if needed? Say if one is smaller? I have on one litter, as she had 9 babies, and one baby I don't think was getting a good feed, so i have bonded with her, she had a feed with me every 4 hours as a top up! Would u do the same if needed? Weight wise? X

Hermione watches me weigh them she isn't bothered at all she can see i'm not hurting them.
I've never had to intervene yet thank god, all the runts haven't been much smaller than the rest of the litters. The idea of handrearing would terrify me when they are so tiny even supplementing but if one wasn't feeding enough or was rejected or something happened to mum i would try my best to feed them. But so far all look like they are feeding well. 

Hermione's babies now 18 days old:
boy 13cm    28/29g
boy  14cm  27/28g
boy 13 1/2cm  27g
girl 14cm  28
girl 14cm  28
girl 13cm 27g

They no longer squeak and they are moving around alot already, they barely stay still when i get them out.

[jennyb]

Pic from yesterday,

they are all doing well 

I got to see Willow's babies monday, wasn't going to look at them until at least friday but while i had Hermione's babies out my sister was looking at Willow's cage and said there's a baby on the floor of the cage, i was like what your joking and she said no the mum is trying to get to it. Went over there and Willow was frantically trying to get to a baby which had fallen through the mesh bottom 

I rescued baby and it was freezing cold and worryingly not moving very much. Decided it was an emergency to warm the baby up, i held baby in my hands but it wasn't warming fast enough every minute it stayed cold was a serious risk to the baby. Decided to grab the hot water bottle seemed quicker than a rice buddy. Thankfully the baby warmed up and started moving around alot more. Once baby was nice and warm i returned it to the nest box. My sister saved that babies life it might not of been spotted until too late otherwise. The babie's skin was a reddish pink maybe because it was cold and very dry and scabby but i didn't want to put anything on it incase it caused the mum to reject it.

I decided to check the rest of the litter just incase there was any problems. The skin of the others looked smooth so they all looked good. It seemed the dry skin was to do with the baby being cold when i looked at them yesterday its skin looked normal. There are seven babies, and Willow was the female who looked small at first i thought she might have 3 or 4 but a few days before birth she got big and i thought looks like she will have 6.

[jennyb]

Hermione's babies are three weeks old, already!

They are doing really well, getting abit difficult to control, they are aready climbing like when i had my back turned one was climbing out of the top of Hermione's house which is like an igloo i had them in and one boy would barely stay still, soon after they were exhausted and had a sleep. Later on though one boy had crawled out of the nest and i had to put him back in since they are too big for Hermione to pick up.

The weighs and measurements are approximate as they just don't stay still much:

Boy 1 - 15 cm           32g
boy 2 - 15 1/2 cm     32g
boy 3 - 15 1/2cm      32g
girl 1 -  15cm           32g
girl 2 - 15cm            34g
girl 3 - 13 1/2cm       31g


third pic is the babies sleeping

[DayleC]

"i had to put him back in since they are too big for Hermione to pick up."          Don't you believe it Jenny!    I saw Fidget pick up a 6 week old baby and dump her where she had stored some food......This poor baby was clinging on for all it was worth......Fidget had it gripped by the groin and the baby just wrapped round.   Goodness knows how Fidget managed it but she did!