Post by ps25 on Sept 5, 2022 10:21:44 GMT -8
Hi. This is not a story I particularly wanted to write about, but I thought I should share in case anyone else ends up in a similar situation.
I have a male/female pair that I had hoped to breed with but never came to anything. After 6 months of waiting, I honestly thought that they were not capable of breeding. So I was surprised when I took them out to clean the tank one day to find a single tiny pup in the nest. It was newborn, maybe a day or two old. Mum was clearly feeding it but as the days went by it became obvious that it wasnt growing as quickly as it should. I checked on it daily and kept my fingers crossed. At three weeks it was moving around the tank but about 1/2 the size I would've expected. I was hoping it could hang in there until it was old enough to start feeding itself. At this point I also tried supplementing it with kitten formula, 2 or 3 times a day. Sometimes I would get a drop into it, but mostly the formula ended up over the pups fur or my hand. Unfortunately, the pup never took to the kitten formula or learned to eat solid food and at 4 weeks old, I found it curled up away from the nest and dead. I guess Mums milk dried up early and my attempts to feed it were not enough.
As soon as I found the single little guy in the nest, I knew its odds were not good. Its just such a shame it got so close to being able to fend for itself but didnt quite make it.
I have a male/female pair that I had hoped to breed with but never came to anything. After 6 months of waiting, I honestly thought that they were not capable of breeding. So I was surprised when I took them out to clean the tank one day to find a single tiny pup in the nest. It was newborn, maybe a day or two old. Mum was clearly feeding it but as the days went by it became obvious that it wasnt growing as quickly as it should. I checked on it daily and kept my fingers crossed. At three weeks it was moving around the tank but about 1/2 the size I would've expected. I was hoping it could hang in there until it was old enough to start feeding itself. At this point I also tried supplementing it with kitten formula, 2 or 3 times a day. Sometimes I would get a drop into it, but mostly the formula ended up over the pups fur or my hand. Unfortunately, the pup never took to the kitten formula or learned to eat solid food and at 4 weeks old, I found it curled up away from the nest and dead. I guess Mums milk dried up early and my attempts to feed it were not enough.
As soon as I found the single little guy in the nest, I knew its odds were not good. Its just such a shame it got so close to being able to fend for itself but didnt quite make it.
, sounds like you gave it your best shot though.
), late 70s