Babies wil be 10 days old this Saturday...question

[Dandy05]

Dandy's babies are all doing well, staying nice and round, and changing so much every day. I will post some new pics as soon as I find the battery charger for my camera.My question to all of you is, from everything that I have heard, seen,or read, it says to clean the nest on day 10 to help prevent eye infections in the little ones, but what exactly doI do to clean the nest? I don't have enough fur stored up to replace it all,and she has some hay in there which I could change out, but she has A LOT of fur pulled. I am just unsure of what I am to do to clean the nest up. Please answer back.

 

[pamnock]

You can remove very wet or very soiled bedding from the nest and add a little new hay/straw. Don't remove all the bedding because it contains the doe's scent. If all the bedding with the scentis removed, the kits may try to leave the box to early in search of their nest.

Pam

 

[Dandy05]

I have also noticed that the kits are laying right on the bare wood of the nest box, should this be a concern? I am wondering if the wood has been wet underneath of them, which I would think could cause a problem, can you think of anything that I might be able to do to clean that up or cover it? I had thought about lifting the kits and then putting some hay or fur under them, but they are so active flopping around that I think they would scoot right off of it again. Short of putting a layer of wood over top of the floor to cover up anything ,( which I don't even have), I am not sure of what else to do.

 

[pamnock]

I use a layer of pine shavings under hay/straw. Newspaper or a piece of cardboard on the bottom of the box also works well because it absorbs some of the excess moisture.

Pam

 

[Dandy05]

Thank you,

I do have some wood shavings that I was originally using as bedding in her big cage, but she would always dig them out of the way and lay on the floor anyway, so I quit using them. Does it matter if there are some rather small bits in the shavings? I supose that it would have to be very fine in order for the kits to actually inhale it. Thank you, I will try one or both of these suggestions. She won't mind me shuffling her nest to much will she. The way my nest box is built, I would have to lift the entire nest to be able to get anything under it, and then put it back in, which of course would muss it up a bit. Will that bother her, or do you think that she would just fix it back to her likeing?

 

[pamnock]

I would remove the doe from the cage before changing the nest box bedding. Return the doe to her cage and give her a small treat after cleaning the box.

I haven't had a problem with the fine shavings, but you can use newspaper instead to avoid any possibility of problems with the shavings.

Pam