How Do You Take Care of Baby Rats

Well-nigh rat owners will either purchase their pets as six-eight week quondam fully weaned youngsters, or adopt them as developed rescues. However, occasionally we can find ourselves playing grandparent to a significant mum and her babies.

In March we agreed to take in ii rats who needed emergency rehoming. The two were a boy and a girl, and although we were told they'd been kept apart, within a week information technology became clear they hadn't equally Miss L developed a very round belly. And carried on getting rounder and rounder, despite almost dying of respiratory complications. Finally, and somewhat confronting the odds, she gave birth to 13 pink wriggly babies, and I was launched into caring for a lactating mum and her unplanned litter. Here'southward how I handled it and what I learned.

Table of Contents

• Baby rat care
  • Cages
  • Nest
  • Treatment
  • Feeding
  • Sexing
  • Weaning and separation

Baby rat care

Cages

Female rats will potentially brand nests in very silly places, and babies wriggle about a lot. Then the nursing muzzle should ideally take a deep plastic base to proceed everyone in and sheltered. I used a cage like to this; information technology is smaller than I'd go along a rat in full-time but ideal for a nursing mum. I took out all shelves, hammocks and baskets so mum couldn't move her nest off the base, merely I included some rope perches for her to play on in her down time, and a corner litter tray for her to toilet in. I put her cage in our bedroom and then she wasn't disturbed by household comings and goings, or the other rats.

Nest

Mums-to-be will usually make their own nest, and Miss L was no unlike. All I needed to do was give her suitable materials and allow her get on with it. Suitable material in this case means non-toxic bedding that won't get tangled circular the babies. I opted for an enormous amount of torn upwards newspaper and paper kitchen towel.

Some people provide nest boxes for pregnant rats, and I recall this is a practiced thought. I didn't to start with as Miss 50 had made an enormous volcano shaped nest that took upward nigh of the cage base, and I didn't want to disturb it. Nevertheless, actually finding the babies to bank check on them required dismantling and and then reconstructing most of the nest. So on day 3, I transferred the babies, and the core of the nest into a cardboard box with a removable lid and two mummy sized holes cut in the side. And then I buried that back nether some of her bigger sheets of newspaper. Miss L took to information technology immediately, and it made life much easier.

Read more: How to Bond With Your Rats: 5 Bonding Activities

Handling

There are conflicting opinions on when an possessor should check on and handle newborn babies. Advised past friends with a lot of breeding experience, I opted to check on the babies on day one when they were a few hours one-time. I didn't handle them, only when Miss L came out the nest for food, I put her out the mode, and opened up the nest but plenty to be able to cheque that the babies were alive and had milk bands in their bellies.

Baby rat pare is translucent, so if they are feeding ok, you can run across little milky colored blobs where their tummies are. If the babies don't have milk bands and so information technology is a sign something is wrong – their mum may either not be feeding them or may not accept milk. If that happens then go advice from an experienced breeder or a vet immediately. I too took the opportunity to check mum and make sure she didn't have any infected discharge or connected bleeding. If she had, so that would take needed the vet.

Miss L didn't particularly heed me being round the babies, and although she was an excellent mum in terms of keeping babies clean and fed, she actually wanted to come up out and play (the poor thing was but a 3-4 month babe herself). So, from day ii, while she was out the muzzle playing, I briefly handled the babies every mean solar day. To start with, I just held each i for a few seconds to check them over, as I didn't want them to spend long outside their overnice warm nest. After the first week as they started to become hirsuite, I spent longer cuddling them until at between 2-3 weeks old they had their eyes open and were all for having playtime themselves.

Feeding

A significant and nursing mum is eating for several, and so she needs special attending paid to her diet. Some people recommend feeding pregnant rats a lot of extra food and especially protein. Yet, I was brash against this, equally information technology can lead to the babies growing too big to comfortably birth. Instead, I fed her on her normal food (a grain based dry mix, some lab blocks, and daily fresh veg) supplemented a moderate amount of protein (mostly egg and craven), and with access to sources of calcium (chicken basic and cuttlefish basic).

One time she had given birth, we increased the amount of food, and fed a protein-based wet repast every day (I scrambled a lot of eggs during that time) alongside her dry out mix, lab blocks and vegetables. We also included some carbs with like shooting fish in a barrel to access calories such equally cooked rice and pasta. To be honest, it wasn't very scientific, but it worked out well. Miss L is at present a healthy sized adult and her growth wasn't seriously interrupted by being pregnant very young, while her babies are all a good size for their age.

Sexing

In that location are a few means to tell the sex activity of a baby rat.

Before about 2 weeks old, the merely option is to judge from the spacing between the urethral opening and the anus; boys have a longer spacing than girls. I made a gauge based on this, which turned out to be right, but I wasn't certain.

The side by side opportunity is betwixt i and 2 weeks when the fur starts to come in. There is a window at this age where the nipple patches are visible on the girls. I was able to apply this to sex accurately (6 girls, seven boys).

The third opportunity comes between 3 and four weeks when boys start to develop testicles. From this stage onwards, information technology becomes pretty obvious.

Read more: How to Litter Railroad train Your Rats in three Easy Steps

Weaning and separation

I let nature take its grade when it came to weaning the babies. Miss L was an excellent mother and although the babies started eating her solid food at most three weeks old, she permit them conduct on having milk on need. She got more casual about it with time – in the first ii weeks of life she'south spend a lot of time in the nest nursing the babies, and making sure they were all safely tucked up in the warm. By iii to four weeks when the babies were fully mobile picayune rats, it wasn't unusual to see her climbing the cage bars with one or two opportunistic feeders hanging off her nipples.

Just before the babies were v weeks onetime, I separated the boys from the girls and their mum. It's recommended to practise this around 5 weeks to avert further pregnancy; I decided to do information technology a few days early equally I had no idea of the age of fertility in the line. That obviously completed weaning for the boys who moved straight in with their (by now neutered) daddy, and a couple of other big calm neutered boys.

The girls stayed with their mum and connected to feed from her occasionally for another few days. Withal, every bit soon as I moved them in with the rest of my girls (and some other couple of neutered boys) that was it. Miss L decided she had done her chore, and although she was friendly to her daughters every bit muzzle mates, from that second, she stopped all forms of mothering and focused on catching up on her own life.

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Source: https://www.animallama.com/rats/baby-rat-care/

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