The orphaned otter pups needed to be fed every 3 hours, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the first 2 months. I and my one helper got very little sleep. But with faces like this, it was hard not to love them.
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| "Oh man! You've never done this before have you?" |
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| "Stop! You're cracking me up!" |
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| "hmmm what was I gonna say?" |
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| The little guys always had to touch each other when they were this age. |
Here is a sample of the data I sent back about feeding schedules to the various otter organizations to make sure we were doing it right.
Since there were three of them we had to find a way to distinguish them. We used food coloring to dye patches on them. Later we clipped each ones' fur in a different place to tell them apart since they all looked alike to me. This was before we knew their combined poo and pee was called spraint. We also weighed them as we then identified them by weight. Being a non-scientific person, I did the best I could.
October 1-2013: 3 baby otters brought to the farm. Eyes and ears still closed.
Weights are 330 and 350 grams
Gave low lactose puppy/kitten- powder, using filtered watered to mix, glucose first then slowly added the milk.
Took bottle 12:30 pm all three got 2 ml warmed to body temp
10-2-2013
3:55 pm feeding
1 pup 4 ml red - weighs 320 grams - healthy stool
Pup 2 blue -3 ml. weighs 330 grams - urinated and defecated normally
No mark pup 8ml weighs 340 grams - urine -stool normal
10-2-2013 -6:55pm
Blue pup 5mil -urine only
NC pup 12 mil - feces - urine
Red pup 8 mil - no feces or urine
10-03-2013 / 3:15AM
Nm pup 340 grams before feeding 12 mil
320-gram pup feces urine 11 mil
330-gram pup urine 6 mil
6:15 am feeding
340-gram pup. 12 mil. Urine feces
330-gram pup. 11 mil. Urine few feces
320-gram pup. 11 mil urine few feces
8:25Am
350-gram pup drank 11mil nonlactose milk - urine only
330-gram pup drank 11mil - feces urine
320-gram pup 12 mil
10:14 Am
350 grams right clipped urine drank 9mil-22 cm 10 cm
Rear clipped 349 grams - - 23cm head to butt, tail 9 cm
Left clipped pup-349 grams -
Body length - 23c m head to butt, tail 11 cm
12:45PM
Rear clipped - 12 mil. Defecated and urinated
Right -front clipped- 11 mil. " "
Left fr - 12 mil - urinated and defecated.
For the first 2 to 3 weeks they needed to be toileted. They do not pee or poo on their own...so their genitals needed to be gently rubbed in order for them to go toilet! This, I can tell you was no fun! It was a stinky, smelly job, but it had to get done.
Later, when they would go on their own, they would toilet on each other as they crawled over each other and we had to wipe them down with warm towels several times a day to keep clean. It was a very stinky job, and one I was not fond of, but it had to be done to keep them clean. For over 2 months, this was pretty much my life!
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| Otter pup or kit before its eyes and ears opened. |
When the otter's eyes opened, we were able to put them into a carry case and into an animal enclosure, we built for another wild orphan. They became too stinky to keep in the downstairs kitchen or our bedroom.
In this video, they are about a month old and had to be cleaned up several times a day as they would go to the bathroom on each other when they would rub their genitals across each other when crawling about!
Please listen to this original song by composer/pianist/singer Tony Pollard on iTunes. If you buy it 99% of all funds will go to feeding the otters and for their caretaker. Many thanks. Click the photo to go to the iTunes link. You can also listen to it for free.
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