Wednesday, August 25, 2004

One of the babies fell out of the cage today! I got home, and only counted seven, so I pulled Hera out of the cage, and started rooting around for the eighth baby. After the first ten minutes, I was pretty sure I was looking for a body. I tore the entire cage/nest apart, but I didn't find it. Finally, my boyfriend spotted the little one on the table outside the cage. She was cool and hungry, and had some minor injuries from the fall. I immediately put her with her siblings. I snapped three quick pictures while my boyfriend rebuilt the nest. Hera was not pleased about the nest being destroyed! At first, I thought she might abandon the babies (she ignored them for a while), and was especially concerned for the injured one. However, she finally started caring for them again several hours later.

This whole thing was frustrating, because I selected a drop-pan cage so that the babies couldn't get out. From what I can piece together, Hera tried to move her nest on top of the popcorn box (she likes the popcorn box), and the baby fell through the bars. She had either not finished moving all of her babies up there when it happenned, or she moved them back afterwards (not sure which). In either case, I moved the popcorn box out of the cage to prevent further incident.

You can see the injured baby, third from the top (if you count the one that is almost totally covered) in the first picture.

One Day Old
Three Days Old
Six Days Old (In Cage)
Seven Days Old
Nine Days Old
Eleven Days Old
Thirteen Days Old
Fifteen Days Old
Seventeen Days Old
Nineteen Days Old
Twenty-One Days Old
Fourty-One Days Old
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