The First Baby

02/06/06:

Joy and her beau Jake have had their first baby. Unfortunately as of this date, the baby isn't doing well. I first heard a new noise from the cage late this afternoon. I thought it was Joy goofing off. Tonight when I returned, the sound was much quieter. I looked in her hutch and saw the baby, out of the pouch, hairless and very weak.

I watched over the next couple of hours to see if the baby would go back in the pouch. No such luck. Joy licks the baby but doesn't seem to do anything to help it along. I tried to feed it a bit of puppy formula that I'd used on a baby coon but it is too weak to take it.

It's 1:00 am now and I'm afraid I've lost the baby. I haven't heard any sounds for half an hour now. I'm not going to disturb Joy anymore tonight. We'll see what happens in the AM.

Some photos:

First photos taken in the afternoon. The baby was still fairly mobile.

The baby has crawled out of the hutch on its own.

Caught in the grate. I helped it back into the hutch at this point.

Baby grasping at Joy but she's not doing anything to help.

Before I put it back in the hutch. It was still breathing well here but it could not take forumla.