# Rescued a 5 week old baby girl



## rkach (Jun 30, 2012)

Hi all, I rescued a 5 week old beautiful baby girl yesterday from a very irresponsible owner. She had the mother as well housed with several others in a small cage. She is a doll! I have been giving her goats milk as she wasn't weaned yet, with a drop of baby gas relief, and just tonight introduced a small amount of canned food mixed with formula. She hasn't pooped yet .... I have been massaging her belly after feeding and still nothing. I'm starting to get worried. Any help would be so appreciated!


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

At 5 weeks she should be able to go to the bathroom herself. Make sure to have water in a dish she can reach and you can leave a dish of Royal Canin Babycat 34 in the cage with her all the time. Babies are usually close to being weaned at 5 weeks so she should be able to manage the babycat. Make sure to keep her warm, I usually try to keep babies at around 75*F when weaning them.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Agreed, at her age she doesn't need stimulated and should be fine without milk at this point. Getting her to eat kibble on her own would be my focus.


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## tie-dye hedgie (Dec 19, 2009)

Nikki and LG are the experts, I just wanted to say kudos to you on rescuing her!  
She sounds like a little doll!


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## rkach (Jun 30, 2012)

So sorry for not responding sooner, my main focus has been taking care of her. I have been mixing canned kitten with the formula, and it has been a few days so I am going to start phasing out the formula and mixing in small amount of softened kibble mix. She (surprisingly after I posted) started going potty in her house and I would see it but never witnessed until today after I fed her and she peed and pooped on me! I've never been so excited to have a hedgie poop and pee on me haha


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Have you tried her on solid (not softened) food? Unless she's runty or something, at 5 weeks she should be able to eat it. Either babycat or Fromm (both which have small sizes) or any other kibble you can try crushing up into smaller pieces. She may not be interested right away, but definitely offer it to her. If she doesn't take to it right away, I would use the canned food to try to coax her to try the kibble, and only give her that until she starts eating the kibble on her own. This is when they normally will start eating on their own and not nursing anymore, or very little. (We have 4 week old babies that are currently going half and half eating kibble and still nursing sometimes.) You want to introduce her to kibble and not keep using the formula or canned food unless necessary - if you keep her on that too long without introducing the kibble it can make it harder to transition her onto the kibble because the canned stuff will be the "post-nursing" food she gets used to.


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## rkach (Jun 30, 2012)

She's experiencing with crushed kibble, but I still have been putting a very small amount of canned in to ease her tummy into the switch. The other thing I'm noticing is that she has no interest in the water.....


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

If you had been syringing formula to her, you can syringe warm water until she's a bit bigger and figures a water bowl out, if you're worried about it. Definitely make sure she stays hydrated.


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## rkach (Jun 30, 2012)

Using a syringe for water, would I still use a gas drop to deter bloat? Also my male I noticed had gained a little weight recently. Could this be due to weather and change in seasons at all? I haven't altered his food or amount in any way and he is still active in his wheel at night. Are there any different exercise activities I could try with him? I feel bad the past few days I have been giving the baby so much attention to make sure that she is strong enough to survive this early leave from her mom.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Nope, the simethicone drops are really just to counteract the bubbles people always manage to make when preparing the formula. 

Does your male have a wheel? Sorry if you've already answered this somewhere else, wasn't sure.


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## rkach (Jun 30, 2012)

Oh yes! A Carolina Storm Wheel, he loves it!


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Oh duh, you said it right there! :? Sorry, my fault for reading too fast! I've heard some will pack a little on during winter, though I haven't experienced that myself - I'd say just keep an eye on him, and as long as he's staying active and doesn't gain a gigantic amount of weight, he's probably just fine.  If you want other exercises for him though, you could get a playpen for him to run around in, have him swim (though many don't like swimming), let him crawl around the couch during a movie, things like that.


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## rkach (Jun 30, 2012)

Is it normal that I'm a nervous wreck about her eating kibble? She's so tiny! I crushed it, and softened it, but I'm terrified she's might choke :/


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

It's normal to worry about just about everything.  She should have no problem with the kibble though, as long as she isn't trying to eat large, whole pieces. If the kibble are small or if they're crushed up, she'll be just fine.


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