Posted By: Anonymous
twins, different sizes; nursing & gaining weight? - 02/03/08 07:55 PM
hi all... our lacy blessed us with twin joeys in january... otis came OOP on friday jan 18th and his sister mylee came OOP two days later on sunday jan 20th. we are happy to say that lacy is a wonderful 1st time momma, and the whole colony is participating in caring for the babies and it's wonderful to see!
here is my concern/queston:
first, my background experience i have to refer to...
from having a cat that had kittens at one time, i had the experience of her having two kittens about 7:30pm and we thought she was done. but the next day at lunchtime when i cam home to check on everyone, she had given birth to two more! so the first two were over 12 hours older than the other two! lol they were all healthy, and mom was fine. but that difference in birthing times REALLY made a difference in their size! the first two seemed to dwarf the other two forever! they were plumper and more active. eventually the second two did catch up and they all ended up the same size.
our current situation...
both joeys had their eyes open by the time mylee was 5 days OOP! otis is two days sooner OOP than mylee... and he sure does look it! he's just this plump little guy, he has the soft grey fur all the way down to the edges of his patagium (sp?) with a dark line along the edge, and he's very active. the little mylee is smaller, not as filled out, her patagium (sp?) is still pink and mostly hairless, but starting to fill in a little bit, and she isn't quite as active as otis.
we were concerned that maybe mylee wasn't getting enough to eat? for a couple days, everytime ann reached in to get the babies neither one would be nursing OR just otis would be nursing. she never found mylee nursing. this concerned us, so we made sure we had all the stuff we needed to have on hand should we end up needing to supplement the babies at all. (thanks cindy for letting me bounce this idea off you on the phone!) we decided to keep an even closer eye on them for a day or so and make sure we weren't jumping on it too soon.
we finally bought a scale. it's a digital oz/gm scale and we're really glad we have it now! we weighed the babies that first night that we had the concerns and this is what we got: otis= 30gm and mylee= 23gm... the second night otis= 32gm and mylee= 25gm... we'll weigh them again tonight and see if the gaining trend continues to be an even one. we are noticing that mylee is a bit more active, and of course we can tell she is gaining a little weight.
i'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, experiences, etc. does this sound normal? anything we should keep an eye on? tips? suggestions?
rho
here is my concern/queston:
first, my background experience i have to refer to...
from having a cat that had kittens at one time, i had the experience of her having two kittens about 7:30pm and we thought she was done. but the next day at lunchtime when i cam home to check on everyone, she had given birth to two more! so the first two were over 12 hours older than the other two! lol they were all healthy, and mom was fine. but that difference in birthing times REALLY made a difference in their size! the first two seemed to dwarf the other two forever! they were plumper and more active. eventually the second two did catch up and they all ended up the same size.
our current situation...
both joeys had their eyes open by the time mylee was 5 days OOP! otis is two days sooner OOP than mylee... and he sure does look it! he's just this plump little guy, he has the soft grey fur all the way down to the edges of his patagium (sp?) with a dark line along the edge, and he's very active. the little mylee is smaller, not as filled out, her patagium (sp?) is still pink and mostly hairless, but starting to fill in a little bit, and she isn't quite as active as otis.
we were concerned that maybe mylee wasn't getting enough to eat? for a couple days, everytime ann reached in to get the babies neither one would be nursing OR just otis would be nursing. she never found mylee nursing. this concerned us, so we made sure we had all the stuff we needed to have on hand should we end up needing to supplement the babies at all. (thanks cindy for letting me bounce this idea off you on the phone!) we decided to keep an even closer eye on them for a day or so and make sure we weren't jumping on it too soon.
we finally bought a scale. it's a digital oz/gm scale and we're really glad we have it now! we weighed the babies that first night that we had the concerns and this is what we got: otis= 30gm and mylee= 23gm... the second night otis= 32gm and mylee= 25gm... we'll weigh them again tonight and see if the gaining trend continues to be an even one. we are noticing that mylee is a bit more active, and of course we can tell she is gaining a little weight.
i'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, experiences, etc. does this sound normal? anything we should keep an eye on? tips? suggestions?
rho