Mommy and daddy running around naked!

[Gloryhound]

These are the new happy parents of three little babies. These litters seem to be small from nakeds or mom kills off alot of them.

First mom on her three babies.


And the new dad looking for a cigar.


Can't wait till they get too this point then the nakeds are really cute. This is a weaned from thier last litter about 6 months ago.


This is our first time leaving the male in with the female. Kind of puzzles me though, when mom goes to get something to eat or drink dad lays on the babies and keeps them warm. I didn't think males had very much of a nurturing instinct in them.

[starmom]

Well that's interesting! What, they are born hairless, then they get hair, and then they lose the hair??? Silly rats

[littleindiangirl]

Hairless females usually have a very hard time lactating, or don't at all. That's why you've lost so many. Plus, seeing as she made the nest on the wire shelf, it could be too drafty for them, they could get stuck or lost. Not sure why her nest is up there, it's definitely not for the best...

[Gloryhound]

If we don't see milk rings we are going to put them with a sarogate mom. She has a good amount of medical stalking under her to hold the kids, but why she chose that place compared to a place on the bottom flat level is beyond me. These guys are not our feeders so they get the special cage. We just let these two go and do their own thing. We have another pair of pet rats that had babies one day later. We would slip the remaining 3 in with, but she ended up having 18 babies which we figure is more than enough for one mom and a crippled dad to take care of. The dad is our three legged rat Lego.

[JamieLynn]

Dad rodents are usually good with babies, i have never lost a babie to a male. I have had females that when left together fought over the babies and killed them. Your hairless mom looks like a skinny version of one of my males. My last hairless litter was 10, and all made it to be grown ups.

[SatanicIntention]

Why is the male still in with her? She's just going to end up pregnant again, over and over... That is not healthy for any rat, not to mention a hairless one.

Stick her alone in a tub with the lid replaced with mesh. Give her high calorie food, something like Hills Prescription a/d is best, along with blocks and rat food mix.

Hairless rats do not lactate well, nor do they birth well. They generally resorb babies or have massive hemorrhaging. Babies can get stuck in the birth canal as well.

I would recommend that you discontinue breeding the hairless rats. If you insist on it, then get a carrier female who is fully furred. MUCH less problems and you still get hairless.

I can't see how they're pets if you're just pumping babies out of her like a factory. She doesn't even have time to recover... Even feeder breeders don't breed hairless.

OH, and scrub the cage. Pee is encrusted everywhere and that's definitely not a place fit for babies, especially immunosuppressed hairless-gene babies. Not a place for hairless rats or any rats either... If they got a cut, it's going to get very infected.