Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Stork Arrives

The King of All and Hyacinth, 1 broken blue and 2 blues.
GC CR White Excitement and GC CR Blue Diamonds, 2 REWS

Mystery and PB Crazy Di, 1 black and 2 broken black.


The Nest boxes lineup.
The stork was here yesterday and I am just waiting for one more arrival today. Woolie litters are so small, usually 2-3 babies. Once or twice there will be a big litter of 4-6 babies but that is unusual. They are the size of a women's thumb when they are born. The colors show up almost right away or at least by day 2. So you can see who is broken or charlie and if the marking have turned out pretty even. I am very excited about my first woolie litter with both parents being Grand Champions.
I use plastic bins for all my litters and I use stacking office bins for the woolies. They are just the right size and even have a spot for a label on the front where I list all the information about each litter. I put this on right away, Mom and Dad, how many and what color and date of birth. This way if any babies escape, I know who it belongs too.
The nest boxes are taken away from the Moms right after birth, covered with a dish towel and brought in the house. They are kept inside a cage and brought out to Mom twice a day, morning and night, to nurse. If the Mom doesn't get the idea, I put the Mom in the nest box and put the dish towel over her so she has some quiet time with the babies. When she is done, she will poke her head out from the towel to let me know. I do this for the first 2 weeks until the babies have grown some wool and the Moms have a chance to re-cooperate. After 2 weeks, it depends on the Moms. Some are happy to have a cage to themselves and some want the babies with them. I let the Moms decide.



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