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will the runt die!

22 10:57:42

Question
my doe gave birth 2 days ago to 8 kits. 1 is much smaller and less active. the others have all gone a solid grey colour however this one is very, pale with very blue internal colours. is it inevitable it will die and is there anything to do to make sure its feeding from mum. i haven't seen mum feed them or even look in the nest yet, so i think she must feed at night. she certainly wont let me watch her feed to see that its feeding.
what should i do?
kind regards

jodi

Answer
Jodi, nature is very wise.  If the runt does not live it is because it is to weak to survive.  Not all runts die.  Right now I have one out of a litter of 12 - the rest weighted 800 grams at 30 days and she weighed 250 - feisty little thing !!! Usually the doe will feed once a day in the early morning - some very good mothers feed twice a day - but the whole show only takes about 3 minutes.  You can give the mother 1/4 cup of rolled oats ( the kind you cook for breakfast -NOT instant )so she has more milk while lactating ( 30 days ).