New to Live Feeding, Rat Fuzzy Question

[kimmys_balls]

Hi everyone,
I'm new at feeding live and have a question about the life stage of a rat fuzzy. My 10 year old son fell in love with one that I brought home to feed my largest female (yes, Mom is feeling major guilt right now). He is a cutie, solid black except for white feet and white tip on his tail and my son wants to keep it as a pet. After spending $18.00 a week on feeders, I started thinking we can grow it up to find out what sex it is, buy the opposite sex and start making our own.
My question is, is this stage "weaned" from Mom and eating rodent kibble? Will he be okay to grow up as a pet/breeder and survive without Mom's milk and just rodent food?

Thanks guys!
~*~ Kim

[Wolves-N-Dogs]

Nope he wont make it he still needs mom. Weaned rats are about five weeks old.

[Brimstone111888]

If it is a fuzzy, then it is still nursing and will need milk or will starve. Out of curiosity your feeding a fuzzy to your largest female? How big is your female?

[Bruce Whitehead]

Best way to determine the rat's sex when they are really young... if it has nipples then female. No nipples... male.

[frankykeno]

Kim if the rat's eyes are not yet open and it's ears are still flat to it's skull and it has a sort of tight, satin looking coat (like a seal pup basically) then it's a rat fuzzy and is about 9 to 15 days of age. At that age it still needs to be nursing and cannot survive without either a lactating female rat or someone hand feeding it.

Basically it goes like this:

Birth to 8 or 9 days of age - rat pinky, born hairless, eyes closed, ears flat to the skull, fully dependent on their mother's milk

8 or 9 days of age to about 15 days of age - rat fuzzy, first coat comes in, eyes are still closed, ears are still flat to the skull, fuzzies will start to blindly wiggle from the nest to follow their mother or explore but are still fully dependent on her

15 days of age until weaning at around 4 or 5 weeks of age - rat pups, their eyes open, their ears become upright, their coat comes in fully, at around 18 to 20 days they start trying their mother's food and her water bottle but will continue to nurse until they are weaned from her

There is a lot of growth in each life stage but especially in the pups. A rat pup of 16 days of age is a lot smaller than say one that is 3 or 4 weeks old.

Rat pinks shortly after birth - you can see the visible milkbands...


Rat pinks - 4 days of age, they've lost that bright red birthing color and you can see the eventual coat colors they will have.....


Just turned into fuzzies....


A older fuzzies/becoming pups - see their ears starting to perk up a bit more than the other litter pictured, eyes are opening...


Little bitty pup/older fuzzie with the eyes just opening (from the above litter)...


Big pups (they were actually weaned that day) piling on top of their poor mother.....


Just weaned rat (this is Q with his funny question mark pattern ).....


Hope this helped to identify what life stage your rat is actually at.

[Ginevive]

Yes, they still need mom at that stage. I had an incident back a few years ago, where a nursing mom escaped and left her litter behind. They were about the stage of the 4th pic above that Jo posted. I got some lab block and Cheerios and other things that I mix into my rat feed mix (Kashi cereal, oats, etc) moistened it with warm water and fed that every few hours. Eventually they got the hang of eating that, and learned to use the water bottle, and they all lived to be hoppers (then they got fed off Just make sure that they can reach the water bottle, and you actually see them eating and drinking. If they are younger than this eyes-open stage, I would not even recommend trying to keep them.. too small.

[cassandra]

Nice pics and description! I'd suggest making this a sticky...or at least adding Jo's post to an existing sticky...

[stangs13]

I agree with cass. Great post joe! Already saved to favs.