If you want to raise a chinchilla-baby by hand that will take a lot of time and needs a lot of sense of responsibility. Normally a chinnie-mommy is able to raise her babies alone. But there are some cases in which we have to help her: 1. The mother-chin dies after birth 2. The mother-chin takes no care for the baby (not very often) 3. The mother-chin does not have enough milk 4. The mother-chin has more than three babies and therefore not enough milk for all 5. The baby is injured and can not stay at his mommy If the mother-chin dies after birth or does not take care for her baby you can try to find a wet nurse. E.g. if you have another chin-mommy, which has babies of the same age, you can try to bring the little one to her. Normally it is no problem and she will nurse it, too. If a mother-chin has not enough milk (e.g. at the first litter or if she has born more than three babies) so you have to help the mother-chin by handfeeding the babies. But you should take care that all of the babies get real mother´s milk, because this is simply the best for the babies!!! If the mother-chin takes no care for the baby and you don´t have a wet nurse, or when a baby is injured and can not be given back to his mommy you have to take the part of the "chinmommy". Handfeeding for bigger litters If there is a bigger litter all the babies can stay with her mommy, but for support you should sometimes feed the babies by hand to help mommy. Many breeders take the biggest babies from time to time out of the cage to give the smaller babies the chance to drink mommy´s milk. I think that this is the best method, because mother´s ilk is simply the best for the little ones. But there is also the possibility to take out all babies by turns so that they all can drink mommy´s milk one after the other. Another good method is to take out the strongest one and feed him by hand, so that he was not so hungry anymore and so made it possible that also the smaller ones could drink from mommy´s milk. If you help mommy by hand-feeding you should do this only about 2-3 weeks, because after that time they start eating pellets and hay and don´t need to be fed anymore. Handfeeding First of all I have to say, that a chinchilla-baby needs his milk every 1 – 1 ½ hours. It is very important to feed it so often, because otherwise the intestines have no work and that could follow up to the babies death. The first 1-2 weeks it´s absolutely necessary to feed in this turns (even at night!!!), later on the periods can be prolonged bit by bit until the baby just eats pellets and hay. It is also very important to warm up the babies constantly. If possible you should take the baby to your body so that it can feel the heat of your body and the safety, which it didn´t get from his mother. If I have to leave the baby alone I always take a small hot-water bottle, fill it up with warm water, pull a towel around and put the baby on it. Little chins like the heat and stay there. „Milk-recipes“ I tried out two recipes until now and I made very good experiences with them: 1. Babyfood mixed with warm water. Here it is very important, that the mixture is not to thick. At the beginning to consistence should be like the one of real milk. Later on the powder-part can be increased so that you have a thicker milk. 2. Coffee-whitener (7,5% fat), mixed with warm water and a little bit glucose. Here it is also important that the milk at the beginning is not to thick. The feeding You should use a milk-dropper, put the baby carefully in your hand (the best is to put the baby in a lying position) and then drop the milk on its snout. At the beginning there could be a little bit restistance, but oon it will recognize that there is something good and starts to drink the milk. If the baby does not want to go on drinking I give hime a few minutes to rest and then the procedure starts again. Very young babies drink about 0,2 - 04, ml, older ones drink more. After feeding it is very important to massage the baby´s belly. Normally the mother-chin would do this, but in this case we have to do it. Please take always care that the belly stays soft. If the belly got hard so you have to go to the vet immediatly, because then the baby has flatulences against which the vet has to fight. It is not sure, that handfeeding is successful, but I think, that every baby has to get a chance, even if it is sometimes very stressful for us. But if such a small baby grows up, it was really worth it!!