HELP! Orphan hedgehogs

[Adrienna_tenshi]

Ok, I didn't know my girl was pregnant (obviously happened when she was being let out for her run and my male got out) but she has 6 babies and she pushed them all out of the nest, is walking over them and not giving them the time of day. They were like that for almost half an hour and so I picked them out and am taking on the daunting task of hand raising. Any advice would be wonderful! I have gotten the KMR and have given them some food, rubbed their bellies and my fiance is keeping them warm.

Thanks

Adrienna

[southcalihedgie]

I have successfully hand raised a hedgehog, my only advice besides feeding only small amounts of KMR ever 2 hours is to keep hoglets warm with rbody warmth. Heating pads, discs ect cause the KMR in a hoglets tiny stomach to expand causing bloat which can kill them. Good Luck.

[keeja820]

awww....where are you located???

[hedgehog69]

pm'd ya a little info

[bloane]

First up, just because she had left them alone for half an hour does not necessarily mean that she was rejecting them. If she is nervous that you were watching her, she may have been too stressed out to settle into the nest with her. Especially since this is probably her first litter, and she is going to be especially panicky. However, after what, 7? 8? hours, it is rather doubtful that she will take them back.
I have successfully handraised babies from a pretty young age on a couple of different occasions.
I personally do NOT like the KMR, my babies had a lot more issues with bloat when I was using KMR than they do now that I have switched to Esiblac puppy formula. Very frequent feedings are a MUST, every two hours is as far apart as I will go with newborns, but I basically try to feed them a drop or so every hour when possible, and then 2 hours apart when I get t the point that I HAVE to have a little sleep. When the baby is laying on it's back, there will be a small area on the baby's left side, right under the rib cage where the stomach will be visible when the baby has been fed. Your goal is a small white area, about the size of a small pea. Do NOT overfeed, overfeeding will kill the baby quicker than underfeeding. Once you have fed, stimulate stimulate stimulate! I do this with either the tip of my finger on the genitals or with a kleenex folded into an arrow (like a paper airplane) and slightly dampened on the genitals. I will be PM'ing you my phone number, feel free to call me if you want any more suggestions, or just wanna talk to someone with quite a bit of experience with small babies.
Becca

[Lc51290]

Any update on how the little quilled ones are doing?