I had phoned Gillian, my possum mentor earlier in the morning to ask if I could call in to see her and she said she would be home and would be happy for me to call in. I wanted her to take a look at my babies because I was a little worried that Saori did not seem to be putting on any weight. So on the way home I called in to see Gillian and she took a look at them both.
It seems the formula, when it spills out of Tamigotchi's little mouth and trickles under his chin and tummy it reacts with his fur, and Gillian noticed that he has lost some of his fur under his chin. I hadn't noticed this. She said it was not a huge issue. She told me the formula sometimes did that to some of the babies. I did not know this before, so now I decided to make sure to take extra special care and endeavour to make sure things don't leak as much as they had.
Feeding baby possums isn't always as straight forward as you think. Most people probably think, like I did, that you just need to whack some milk in the bottle and pop it in their mouth, but it doesn't work like that at all. I am constantly learning new things along this journey.
Other than this slight set back with regard to his fur, overall, Tamigotchi was doing well and putting on weight like he should.He was now over 80 grams and Gillian said she could see a lot of growth in him. He was all fluffy, warm and cuddly for Gillian when she nursed him. It also seemed as though his toileting issues had all cleared up too.
Next, she took a look at Saori. She agreed that Saori had not put on any weight and decided to feed her and use tissues to measure any spills along the way. She weighed a tissue dry and then after Saori had eaten and some of the spills leaked into the tissue, she weighed the wet tissue. Saori works very hard on the teat and tends to dribble and bubble quite a lot and it is this that runs out of her mouth. After her first feed, Gillian discovered that she had leaked at least 2ml, which is most of her feed! No wonder she is not putting on any weight.
Gillian thought I should try to change the technique that I used to feed Saori. I laughed because I wished I was in more control than I actually was. It is really Saori's technique. I explained to Gillian that Saori loves to stand up and hold onto the syringe when she feeds. It dribbles all down her elbows and down her belly. Anyway, I knew now that I would have to be more in charge and not always let Saori have her way. Gillian suggested that I remove the teat and drip the formula, one drop at a time, into her mouth. This is a very time consuming method, but the way I saw it, I didn't really have a choice.
I bought some new teats off Gillian and was pleased that Gillian was happy with their progress anyway. She enjoyed her cuddles with them too. While I was there, I asked Gillian for a list of trees and bushes that possums love to eat. I had a plan.
It was great catching up with Gillian and as we were leaving, she told me she was off to pick up an older rescued Brushtail possum. How exciting.
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