My first litter!

Well, got my first litter of rats last night. Got my first colony (1.3) about a month and a half ago, and one of the females finally got pregnant. Had a feeling she has going to have them yesterday and sure enough she had 14! Is it possible for her to care for all 14 babies, or will I loose a few?

thanks,

Dave

14 should be doable. Some moms are better than others but I have one that regularly has 15 and she does a great job with them. Keep the food and water there when she needs it and you should be good. Congrats :)

I had one mom drop 10 pinks last week and 2 more moms drop 15 and 12 pinks respectively and they were all in the same tub and I noticed that only 2 of the moms were nursing/taking care of them so I took the bad mom out to go back with the male and left the two good moms to take care of the 37 babies togeather and they're doing an outstanding job! What's kinda cool about it is that they will take care of them in shifts, one mom will take care of all of the babies at once while the other rests and then they'll switch...its pretty cool.

Easily. I have moms that have 13 almost every time and the babies are just fine. The only mom that has troubles is my mom that drops 17. Those ones stay small for a lot longer than other babies so I usually give a few of her babies to another mom if I can.