I didn't notice the pregnancy until I saw the bedding moving from underneath, and took a closer look. There I found a pink hairless fellow wriggling blindly around.
I didn't count how many as I was worried that me being there will cause to irritate the mother and eat the babies.
I retreated and went to work, but later realized that I should have separated the father from them as I was told that he too has the tendency to eat the young.
By the time I reached home, my older daughter told me she saw a feet dangling out of the mouth of the daddy. I couldn't imagine what I would find when I open the cage and clear the bedding... a head here?... a tiny leg there?
I put on a pair of latex glove and braved myself when I prepare to open the cage. I imagined nothing was there but blood and tiny intestine...
But instead, I found 4 wriggling hairless babies. The startled parents started to run around, it caused me to panic. My lovely wife was at my side, shouting: "Grab the male one! Grab the male one!" But they both look the same!
I took a guess and went for the one nearer to me, turned out its the male one.
The babies after a week and a half, have grown hair and started to move about more.
They look like little walking peanuts...
The 4 of them survived for 2 and a half weeks until...
The morning I found it in the drinking pit, it was shivering. Its the smallest of the 4, often squeezed out of the warmth of the mother's buxom and denied of the milk. I often had to push it back to the crowd but...
That evening I found it dead, buried in the bedding...
I now left with 3...
I watched them born and helped raised them. Colleagues have expressed the interest of taking 2 of them, but I don't think I'll be giving any away.
No comments:
Post a Comment