Premature Birth Leading to Death of Babies

[tpilli]

Does anyone have a pic of what a newborn baby looks like? My sister-in-laws Degu just had what looked to be a miscarraige. Degus are supposed to be fully developed when they are born right? These weren't. I mean...some of them had limbs but their eyes and ears were not fully developed - they didn't even have ears. They didn't have fur either. She's these 2 degus for about a month. They are both positively female. Mother and Daughter - no mistaking it. When I asked the lady I got them from if she took the male out after she had her last litter she said no - so looks like a back to back pregnancy. Her daughter she is living with was her second litter. So I'm guessing her immune system was fairly limited. Am I right? When we found them this morning she was starting to eat them. And we were sure they were already dead since they were so premature. So we took her and the daughter out of the cage and cleaned it all out and disposed of them to prevent her from eating them. Once it was all cleaned up we put them back in. Did we do the right thing? They were premature right?

[jackdaniels]

This is a pic of my litter at about a week old they have slightly more hair but thats how they should look

[deguconvert]

I don't want you to feel guilty about what I am about to say, because I am sure I would do the same thing as you, if this information were not in the back of my mind.

I read some time back that if an expectant mother, that has endured back to back pregnancies, has a spontaneous abortion, she will eat the babies for two reasons. One to prevent there being the scent of dead flesh that would attract predators. And Two to renourish her body, because the demand of all her pregnancies will have seriously depleted her body and systems.

I'm sure you have already disposed of the bodies, and that's fine. It might be an idea to get some Kitten milk though, and give it to her once or twice a day, for a day or two, so that she is getting some extra calories. Lets see . . . if you have access to some fresh herbs, dill, basil, oregano and chives are good sources of calories as well.

[tpilli]

They were not even close to being that developed. They were the size of maybe...half my pinkie finger. No fur or anything. Their ears, eyes had hardly developed and were not open. And then tail and limbs were just barely recognizable.

She may have needed the nourishment though, I never thought of that. :S I have some fresh parsley in the fridge I may try giving her some of that in the morning.

Thanks for the pic Jack Daniels and for your help deguconvert. It helped alot.