Question About Cleaning a tub with babies...

[BigIan]

I have 12 females and 4 were pretty quick to give birth and I'm not sure if it's always like this but when I'd look at the first litter the mom would pick up the babies and move them. I don't want to disturb anything but at the same time I really need to change out the bedding.

Should I remove the substrate that doesn't surrounding the moms and their babies?

[j94712]

Just pull out the mom and put the babies in a clean plastic tub (so that you don't miss any babies hiding in the substrate), then just clean the rat tub. If the mom pick up a couple of pinks, just let her do it and put them both in a container.

[steve_r34]

I just take the mom and babys and them in a box and then clean I do not use any chemical when the babies r 1st born I just wipe the tubs down with water .. the moms always gonna move the babys around .. but no need to worry she will not harm them cause u touched them

make sure u check thru sub for any babys missed

[Rhasputin]

Sometimes I move everyone out, and clean, sometimes I don't clean, and sometimes I leave the nest, remove the mom, and clean everything else but the nest with the babies.

[MisterKyte]

For me it depends on what the condition the bedding is in (I've gotten pretty good at sensing when the female are about to give birth so I'll usually clean out their tubs a few days beforehand) but I've cleaned anyways within a day of the female giving birth in the past. I would suggest putting all the pups in some kind of container, put mom in holding, then clean as usual minus any kind of chemical cleaners.
Put mom and the pups back and she'll resettle the family without much issue.

[satomi325]

If the litter is less than a day old, I don't clean and leave them be. But after day 1 or 2, I move babies and mom to a clean tub if they need a tub change. I also always move some of the nest to the new tub too so it still smells familiar.

[Wapadi]

We put the adults in a tub on the floor and put really little new ones in a separate container. Clean tub and put babies in first then the adults. The moms here always seem to pick up a baby and sometimes they have actually bit them too hard and drawn blood dragging them around so we keep them apart for cleanings. Never had a mom care afterwards. Also typically we have empty bins ready and just drop everyone in a ready clean tub...