Rejected Pinkie, can I supplement

by j.n379 Sat 15 Jun 2019, 7:16 am

I'm not fully sure it's rejection, but 4 hours ago when doing a count one of the mice was about two inches away from the nest. It was still warm, it still had some milk band showing, I didn't panic. I put it back with the rest of the babies.

((They are about 52 hours old right now))

Now after 4 hours she has moved the nest across the tank, and there was a baby again two inches away from the new nest (so clearly she moved it... But not to the right place?), still covered by nesting materials but cold. Again, didn't panic. Put it back in with the others who were all warm. Gave her more nesting materials, maybe it'll help keep babies warm if this is an accident on her part?

I'm bringing the nursing tank next to me today to supervise more closely. If she continues to either leave babies behind or remove them (not sure which as I wasn't watching and her nest hides most of her activities) should I be warming them up maybe? Feeding them by hand? (I've medicated grown mice successfully but never raised a pinkie) and if so, honestly I cannot do it round the clock, so should I just intermittently help as needed and return the baby to the nest after warming and potentially feeding? Or is that going to make things worse for the rest of them?

I'm not really concerned with the whole idea that this might happen because mom knows something is wrong and it might not survive. That's fine, I'm still going to help it as best I can, just in case. It might not survive, either way, I know that. I don't want to upset the mom mouse and get in the way of her raising her litter, but if a mouse is cold and I know it, I'm really hoping I'm able to warm it up and safely return it.

It's mom's first litter and my second. She has twelve babies and seems to be doing well with them, other than this new development tonight. The baby (ies? Cannot tell them apart) looks healthy to me, normal, same as all the others. Not smaller than them. Not weird looking in any way. Maybe they're just accidentally wiggling out of their nest, but I would think the cold one would have wiggled towards warmth!