Ear Chewing Mother

[Deleted]

Last week I went on a short trip to visit family 8 hours South of me, leaving the ferrets in the care of my mother & housemate, who said things were going well & they didn't have any issues to mention.

Got home last night, checked all my other creatures, came to the ferrets, everyone looked good until I peeked into Vivians nest box to check on her & her litter of 7, & found one of the babies missing most of her right ear. Checked everyone else, & yep, everyone's had one or both ears chewed. The kits are fine otherwise, fiesty & full of spunk, but all of them have chewed ears.
Now, cause I wasn't sure if it was them doing it to each other or Vivian doing it to them, I left them for an hour, made up some mush for them & came back. I sat & watched them for a little & witnessed Vivian holding one down & chewing an ear, which resulted in a very vocal protest from the kit. Even though it didn't sit well with me, I left them for the night. This morning, caught her doing it again to another kit, so after work I decided to remove the kits & finish raising them myself.

They were born 19th of December, 2011. They're about 7 weeks old now, all with teeth & eyes open. They're fiesty & pretty attentive towards everything that goes on, which is good.
All 7 are booked in to the vets at 8:30am tomorrow to get checked.
Cause they are happy to eat on their own, I'm mixing in a kitten milk suppliment into their mince, which is either a roo mince or fattie chicken mince (both are higher branch pet quality). I will try to get them eating small bones on their own, I've seen them have a go at their mums, but these guys are still really little compared to the others I have & so I'm just trying to boost them up a little more. They tackle chunks of heart & kidney pretty well, so I dare say feeding them isn't going to be too much problem.

I've run this past two other breeders, one local & a friend in Sydney, both been breeding for a few years. Both agreed this was an acceptable thing to do & that the kits will do fine providing I keep them clean, monitor their ears & general developement.

Is there any other things I should do for this lot? I want to put something on their ears, but so far I've just wiped everyone down pretty well with a warm, damp cloth & tried to clean the ears up. None of them liked that at all. Probably just wait & see what the vets say. I'll take some photos & upload them either tonight or tomorrow.

[crazylady]

hi can you get hold of some sudocreme ?(antibiotic diaper cream )t sticks like glue and the kits wont touch it ibefore putting on the cream wash with dilute hydrogen peroxide to kill any bacteria the cream heals and acts as a barrier at 7 weeks old they will be fine just keep an eye on the ears incase any blood clots form as this can cause cauliflower ear and the ears will be deformed ear chewing is normally down to stress the mom gets stressed out and trys to comfort herself by chewing on the ears personally I wouldnt breed her again ( sorry just my oppinion ) hope this helps take care bye for now
bev

[Heather]

Thanks Bev, I was at a loss for this one. I know that it happens and that stress is often the cause....I just didn't know what to do about it
ciao

[foxfire]

Hi,
Yes mummy stress does some weird things.
My "Bindi" with a litter of kits tried to kill her mother's litter in the same room, tho they were separated by a barrier wall. Very nearly succeeded a few times, and even tried to kill her mother.
All my kits were eating chicken necks, wings, legs, rabbit and turkey wings at 3-4 weeks old. You can put necks in with them now, you will find they will quite happily munch on them. Cut the wings up between the bones. Be careful feeding them mince, they can choke on it. You are far better giving them large cuts of meat for all the kits to share.
They will quickly learn to drink milk out of the bowl, after you show them that it is there by dipping your finger in milk, then on kits lips.
Good luck, you are doing a great job.

[joan]

This is a new one to me, too...I've never heard of such a thing happening before. I'd agree with Bev that it's due to stress of some kind and that the jill should not be bred again. I sure hope the kits do well and don't suffer any long term consequences as a result of their dam's mutilation of their ears!

It's not uncommon for jills to overclean their kits at birth and bite off feet, legs, and/or part of the tail. I've always felt this was due to stress, as well, since many of these jills were kept in close proximity to other pregnant or nursing jills. I've never had this happen as my pregnant jills are moved into a room by themselves a couple weeks or so before they are due to whelp. They, and their kits, are not moved into the ferret room until the kits are at least 6 weeks old.

[Deleted]

Kits got the all clear. Vet cleaned the ears, gave me some saline to clean them with & said they were in good condition, so other than some scars, will probably be fine. One of the little girls I'm keeping cause her right ear is totally gone.
They are going well food wise, anything put in their bowl they clean up. I gave them some chicken wings, & they stripped the meat off & ate the cartiledge from the ends, but seem to have left the bone. I might try them on something smaller.

As for their mum, she won't be getting bred again. I don't know what would've stressed her out, I was gone for 4 days, they were perfectly fine before I left. Perhaps having someone else care for her set her off. She was on her own & away from others creatures. Might just be a weirdo.

Photobucket doesn't want to work for me, so I've given up in trying to get photos on here for now. Might give it another shot when I get a chance.

[Heather]

Try taking a cleaver or hammer to the wings...to smash up the bones. It might make it easier for the wee ones...at least until they get good jaw strength to chew their way through the bones. I'm glad that they're going to be ok
ciao

[Deleted]

Well, they had chicken ribs & some baby chicken feet last night. Didn't find a single trace & cleaned up some rather impressive poopies for such little creatures. Their ears are hugely improved, most everyone's scabs have come off & all they need is a little clean once or twice a day. No infections, no ulcers or weeping wounds for most of them, though a couple still have some sore spots but those are mending well. I've got before & after pictures to show, so I'l take a crack at uploading some tonight.

[Deleted]

try using windows media and the edit function on the photos. When you are in edit, there is a resize option and you can post the pics here on the website.