Feeding dirt to fawns

Hello all,



I'm new on the board here, trying to come up to speed on bottle raising fawns asap! I am amazed at the knowledge here from y'all--thank God I found you!



I recently started volunteering at a wildlife ranch. They are over run with babies of all kinds that are being bottlefed (skunks, kangaroos, lemurs, camels, black bears, and the list goes on), and they asked me to take care of 2 fawns. Pretty much I was sent home with goat milk powder and 2 babies and here I am.



My question is why do they eat dirt? In searching the boards here I see references to going out and digging up "good" dirt. What constitutes "good" dirt? My backyard dirt is pesticide, chemical-free, nothing's been used on it. Would dirt from my yard be fine?



They're 2-1/2 weeks old and eating like gangbusters every 6 hours round the clock. Giving them goat milk made from powder. I pee/potty them after each feeding. Their stools are somewhere between runny and gooey. They're energetic and curious and seem to be thriving. They're in my house right now and I take them outside for several hours each evening.



Also, from reading these forums, I find that I need to have pellets and grass available to them asap. I've put in an email request to Whitetaildeer.com asking how much shipping would be on their Superior Fawn Starter Pellets but haven't received a response yet. Is there something from my local feed store that would work just as well?



Thanks in advance for your help!

Janeen

Thanks a bunch for all the good advice! I sure do appreciate it. It's very helpful to me. I put some good dirt in their pen and they were all over it chowin' down within one minute.



I'm going to try stimulating them every other feeding and see how that goes, and tomorrow I'll run down to the feed store and pick up some starter pellets.



Thanks again!!

Janeen

Well, I fed them dirt 2 days ago and then yesterday--whoah! Major scary squirts! Very dark in color, like the dirt.



So I ran out yesterday and got Scours-Ease and Probios. Gave 'em each 5 gm Probios and have had them on the Scours-Ease, replacing the goat milk mixture they'd been on previously.



I also got some yogurt with live acedophelus cultures and have been putting that in their mix as well.



This morning their poo is back to more what I call "normal"...but it still doesn't have shape/form and is loose (which is what it was at when I received them). The boy has some major bowel sounds going on. I'm expecting a major blowout soon.



Thanks to everyone for all your response and help!!!

Janeen

Hi Carlyn!



Good luck with your little guy!



I've got my babies in the house with me, in air conditioning. I take them outside for a couple of hours every day in the early evening, so they're going from cool to warm/hot and muggy and back to cool. I'm in North Texas and the weather's been in the 90's, but of course I keep 'em in the shade. I know that I'll have to harden them off so they're used to being in outside temps before I take them back to their ranch.



But as for your little guy catching a cold...it's always been my understanding that colds are caught from a virus and not fluctuations in temperature . You say he's spry and lively--yay!. I'm such a newb at this let's see if any of the pro's here on the forum will answer you as to how much and how often!



Janeen

Heya C!

Here's a couple of pics. Let's see some of yours!!!!!!