How to care for a chinchilla after childbirth
1. Carefully Check the body of the chinchilla mother:
After the chinchilla gives birth, the pet owner should pay attention to check whether the vaginal opening of the chinchilla mother has been completely closed to prevent the infection from occurring if the vagina is not closed; Check the mother chinchilla’s nipples to make sure that the milk is flowing and that there are no pains or cracks.
2. Carefully check whether the baby chinchillas are healthy:
After the hair of the baby chinchillas is dry, they look like loose pom-poms, which To a large extent, they are healthy. If the baby chinchilla’s hair has never been dry, and the baby chinchilla still likes to move around, whether it makes a small humming sound, the pet owner should pay attention to keeping the indoor temperature above 20°C, and take precautions to keep warm. Because the mother chinchilla will help the baby lick and dry the hair.
3. Supplement nutrition for Chinchilla mothers:
Chinchillas consume a lot of energy and energy during childbirth. The chinchilla needs to supplement some nutrients, especially nutrients such as protein, minerals and calcium. You can provide it with some more staple food alfalfa, and at the same time add 5-10 grams of cereal to it every day.
4. Keep the chinchilla father and chinchilla mother in separate cages in time:
The female chinchilla will ovulate within 24 hours after giving birth. At this time, the male chinchilla will ovulate. If the female chinchilla straddles again, causing her to become pregnant, this is very detrimental to the health of the female chinchilla, and pet owners should pay attention to avoid this from happening. In addition, letting the postpartum chinchilla mother live alone with the baby can effectively prevent the chinchilla father from affecting the baby chinchilla during lactation.
5. Artificial feeding the chinchilla cubs if necessary:
If the chinchilla mother has a baby If more pups are born, there may be a situation where breast milk is not adequately distributed to the pups. And the newborn cubs must have enough breast milk within 2 weeks after birth. If the mother Chinchilla’s milk is insufficient, it is recommended that the pet owner artificially breastfeed the Chinchilla baby. Many chinchilla cubs will experience weight loss to varying degrees within 1 to 2 days after birth, because it takes time for the chinchilla mother to breastfeed, and pet owners can also try to artificially breastfeed the newborn cubs during this period. Use infant formula to feed, but be sure to control the amount of feeding.
6. Pay attention to observe whether the chinchilla mother has constipation:
The chinchilla mother does less exercise during the period from pregnancy to delivery, and may experience constipation after delivery In this regard, during the lactation period of the mother Chinchilla, you can use the method of mixed feeding with food and grass, and feed it a quarter of a fresh apple every day and provide it with sufficient drinking water.
7. Check the baby chinchilla’s weight changes every day:
After the baby chinchillas are born, pet owners can judge whether they are healthy or not by their weight changes. Generally, the weight of cubs who are just born 1 to 2 days will not change. This is a normal phenomenon, because it takes time for a chinchilla mother to breastfeed. If the weight of the chinchilla cubs will generally increase after the third day, even if it is 1 gram, it means that the chinchilla mother has started breastfeeding. However, if the weight of the chinchilla cub does not drop, the pet owner should pay attention to it. If this happens, it means that the cub did not drink milk smoothly, and the pet owner needs to artificially breastfeed it in time.
Reminder: After confirming that the female chinchilla is pregnant, it is best to keep the female chinchilla and the male chinchilla separately, especially one week before the female chinchilla is born and before the end of the lactation period. Female chinchillas and male chinchillas are kept separately to prevent male chinchillas from causing harm to female chinchillas and their cubs.
