My rat gave birth unexpectedly...

[Mice"R"US]

we bought a rat a long time ago to try and breed with a male, well two months later nothing happened so we got ride of him. We kept the female cause I liked her so we didn't feed her as food. Than 4 days ago she gave birth unexpectly. She never showed signs of being pregnant and now she has 14 babies. Are the babies the same as mice when they grow up? I have bread mice for awhile and I know alot about them but when it comes to rats I really don't have a clue. I know today I think the babies are 5 days old Am I able to change her bedding, she lets me touch them sometimes and trust me, but her cage is getting pretty rankie and I want to known when I am able to change the bedding. I normaly change my mice bedding 2 weeks after birth. And than does she need any thing special I am so clueless on what to do for her.

[LadyOhh]

Just go thru the same motions as you would with a mouse. Just keep a little bit of bedding in with the babies so that Momma can find them. (I do that, which may or may not be necessary, but just a habit of mine)

[Mice"R"US]

Thanks that will help. She gave birth to a big litter is that normal? she has 14 babies. when are you suppose to wean the pups? I wean my mice at 3 weeks are rats the same?

[LadyOhh]

I wean them when they are eating solid food on their own, eyes open. I don't actually pay attention to the time line, I just take them out when I see it

[truthsdeceit]

Mice and rats have about the same time line. I usually wean my mice at 3 weeks and my rats at 3.5... sometimes earlier or later depending on how healthy the litter is.

[MarkS]

Actually, I think rats are a lot more forgiving about who handles their babies. There have been rat cages where I've changed the bedding the same day the mom gave birth and it never affected how mom cared for her babies. Can't always say the same thing for mice.

14 is not an especially large litter, they can feed 12 at a time, they'll take turns. I usually just leave them in with Mom until they're about 4-5 weeks.

[truthsdeceit]

That's true rats to tend to be friendlier and therefore more forgiving when it comes to their litters.

It depends on how much you handle your rodents though. I have some mice that I can handle while giving birth, and I've had some rats that I need to give 3-4 days before I even add food to there hoppers. But all in all rats are better mothers.

[Mice"R"US]

thanks for the help, i changed her cage the other day and she seemed fine with it. i am hopeing though our bp will eat them or really they are no use to us.

[rebeccabecca]

well when they get your snakes size kill them and freeze them as back up food. we have lots of animals that eat pinky rats so they are either frozen or fed off when tiny. My corns eat mice, rats,asf.

[Mice"R"US]

My bp doesn't like to eat frozen, he is about 2 ft right now and the rats are just about his size. He can eat about a medium size rat so the babies are about the size of a small mouse. but i think he will be able to handle them. but i just wasn't expecting the babies... it was a big shock...