soaked bedding -babies 13 days old -help?!

kmknits · 08-02-2016, 07:36 AM

Hi -I am hoping someone with breeding experience can help me with some advice here -I've been posting in the groups about my non planned rescue momma and litter...babies are now 13 days old and momma moved the nest over night to under the water bottle -as you can imagine it has then drained out into the bedding -soaking the momma and babies. Since their eyes are not open yet I haven't touched them or made any changes in their habitat, so what should I do at this point? she is still laying in the wet bedding with them all and I don't want to upset her, nor have any of them get sick? I have no idea what my best choice is right now...do I remove them all and change the bedding? If so, do I move them together or in separate bins? Will the bedding dry on its own? Will she come to her senses and move them all -I see no signs of that at this point. I moved the water bottle to the other end of the cage, but don't know how to lower it enough so that the babies could reach it without her doing the same thing with bedding again? HELP?!?

souffle · 08-02-2016, 11:50 AM

I would try and distract her with food then just put in a load of dry bedding and let her move it in to the nest area. Tissue should soak up the moisture then dry out. You may be able to remove some of it with some salad tongs? As long as the babies are getting plenty of wet foods they are likely not drinking much from the bottle yet. You can always make a sort of ramp for them and sit that in front of the bottle.

POLAR WHITES · 08-02-2016, 11:54 AM

As souffle said I would add dry bedding. Put near the nest so she can move it .

kmknits · 08-02-2016, 01:14 PM

thank you both! She moved them back to the original nest about 30 minutes after I posted this, so I tempted her with treats to come out for a quick run on her wheel in another bin and since the babies were in the dry nest I was able to remove the soaked bedding without touching them. Everyone is back together and seems very happy -no harm done. They have all dried out their fur and look well, so I hope everything just goes smoothly from here on out and I moved the water bottle to the other side of the cage for now.

POLAR WHITES · 08-02-2016, 01:18 PM

That's great ☺

Pebbles82 · 08-04-2016, 10:29 AM

Excellent! Maybe she thought they all needed a shower lol. Or could have been trying to cool off. Glad it's all sorted though.