Babies gone!!!

[drugaria]

The day before one of my rats had her first litter, so i separated her from her other mate and the male. The next day there were only two pups, one dead the other just about dead. There was no bloody mess or signs of canibalism but the fact is she ate them although she seemed a very carrying mother and even was taking care of the dead pup. Anyhow I took the live pup away from her and placed in a small box in one of my snakes cages to keep it warm since none of my ball pythons showed any interest in eating it. I think I'ts gonna end up in the freezer since none of my other rats have pups.
I wonder if my mice would take care of it and nurse it along with their young?

[JamieLynn]

I have had mice care for rat pups. You just have to be carefull on how you sneak the baby in. Check out some mouse/rat breeding sites, a lot of them will have guides.

[West Coast Jungle]

Mice dont even care for each other. I wouldnt put him near any mice.

[JKExotics]

ASFs would care for mice and rat pups but I've never seen a rat or mouse parent care for pups in that manner. Not to say they wouldn't but I've never seen it.

[JamieLynn]

I have been breeding rats and mice for the better part of the last 10 years. I have had mice foster rat pups, and rats foster mouse pups. Mouse pups raised by rats do get bigger (by around 7-10g), and have a much nicer temperment. On the other hand, rats raised by mice tend to be more mouse like, and the mouse may kill off most of her litter to feed the rat, and because the rat will get bigger than the mouse babies, so the mouse mom thinks her babies are sick and kills them.

Due to this, when a mouse has something I like in its color/pattern i will remove it from the mouse mom and place it in with a rat.
This makes the future mouse breeders nicer, and more used to being handled.

This talks about fostering...
http://www.afrma.org/rminfo8.htm
If you look for rat and mouse breeders that breed for pets not feeders you can find a lot more of this.