How common is it for rats to birth dead babies?

[KevinK]

Howdy herpers.

I started breeding rats about two months ago. I currently have three females and one male.

The first litter produced was 15 healthy babies, none dead.

Last night however another one of my females had given birth, but it was only to nine babies and two of them were born dead. Did she give birth early or is this a common thing?

[Simple Man]

Were they born dead or smothered? I have occasionally missed pulling a mom into her own tub and a few babies got smothered. They can be a little stressed if there are other rats in the same tub especially if it is their first time. Good luck!

Regards,

B

[boadaddy]

Not common but it happens, what are you feeding them? Like simple man said could of just been smothered and unfortunately that happens sometime. I don't put my females in maternity tubs and rarely lose any babies, I like a good consistent supply of feeders.

[Redneck_Crow]

I think that it's pretty common for a dead baby or two to happen here and there. Most critters who give birth to litters instead of singletons lose a few occasionally. When I bred dogs it wasn't unusual in a litter of 11 or 12 (hounds have huge litters) to have one or two dead pups. Often they were very small or deformed and my vet said that this can happen because they are on the farthest end of the uterine horn and don't receive much blood supply and that when they make it they are the runts. If the female had a lot of dead ones every litter that would be another story.

One of my rats gave birth to 7 for her first litter. I wait and see what the second and third litters are like before I start thinking about culling them from breeding. Incidentally, her 7 were born about twice the size of the 12 that my other rat just dropped.

I suspect that we don't see a lot of the dead rodent babies that do occur because the mother's instinct is to eat afterbirth and dead babies--if she didn't they could bring disease to the others as they decompose and her instincts tell her that the smell would draw predators.

[KevinK]

Not common but it happens, what are you feeding them? Like simple man said could of just been smothered and unfortunately that happens sometime. I don't put my females in maternity tubs and rarely lose any babies, I like a good consistent supply of feeders.

I'm feeding Regal rat. I think it's the best food available. I have two females and the father to the babies in the tub. As far as I can tell they were born dead. They were very small however, it makes me think that she might have birthed early.

[meowmeowkazoo]

I would recommend switching to Mazuri or Native Earth. Much more affordable and still very good for the rats.

Dead babies happen most often to first time moms, old moms, or moms that are high strung and get stressed. It's easy for them to die right after being born if the mom doesn't clean off the placenta and keep them warm. They are very susceptible to cold.