Suckling

[smccollo]

She is wanting to suckle even when we have fed her the full amount. Is there something I can give her to help with this?

[Sweet Simon's Mommy]

When we raised puppies I would let one suckle my pinky, it was a security thing , maybe same with squirrels , don't know, some stay babies longer just like dogs, cats and people for that matter:D

[mpetys]

She is wanting to suckle even when we have fed her the full amount. Is there something I can give her to help with this?

How old is she? How much does she weigh and how much are you feeding her? If you are feeding her the 5% to 7% of her body weight, there are two important things to remember.

One is to remember to weigh her often so that she is actually gettiing what she should be. It is so easy to forget to check their weight and when you finally do, you find that you are not feeding enough according to the guidelines.

The other thing to remember is that the guidelines are just that, guidelines. You can adjust and go lower or higher if need be. I had a baby last summer who could not take in 5% of his body weight per meal. He had diarreah from overfeeding but he was only eating 5%. I started weighing him at each meal to track his weight and started reducing the amount I was feeding him until I was down to feeding him 3.5% and I also adjusted the amount of time in between feedings so he would get his next meal about 1/2 an hour sooner. Slowly but surely, that cleared up the diarreah. When I started trying adjusting his food volume back up, he would get the pasty diarreah again so I would reduce back down to 3.5%. This went on for several weeks and then he got to the point where he was eating 5% and then 7% with no problems.

I have babies now who eat about 9% at each meal. When I stopped them at 7%, they were still hungry so I would give a little extra, maybe 1/2 a cc. I kept an eye on their poop to make sure I was not causing any problems so when everything looked good and they are still hungry, I do feed a bit more.

Michele