Woke up to my first litter. Help!

I generally feed frozen but I had a few picky eaters a few months ago and ended up buying two rats that didn't get eaten. I woke up today to nine babies!!! I have no idea what to do. I don't want them to die without a chance. Any advice on how to handle an unexpected litter?

First, take a deep breath! Mama rats are pretty good at doing their job :) Just make sure there's plenty of food and fresh water, you can even toss a hide in there to make her feel more secure. Some people leave the sire in with mom and babies, some don't, but I haven't had any issues either way. I like to toss in leftovers, like plain pasta noodles, veggies and sometimes scrambled eggs to boost protein. All in all, taking care of a litter isn't much different than taking care of adult rats. Good luck! And post pics when they're all cute and squirmy lol.

Thanks for the information. My rats were on pine shavings before and yes I do understand pine can damage their sensitive respiratory systems. I want to move them to a paper based cat litter but I don't get paid for another week. In the meantime, will the pine shavings hurt or kill any of the babies?

Congrats!
Just let the mama do her job. She knows what to do. I like to offer Ensure to the mamas to give them a boost.

My rats are on kiln dried pine with no issue. As long as the pine is kiln dried, it is safe to use. Untreated stuff is harmful.

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Yep I keep mine on pine too, no issues as of yet. X2 on the Ensure, you can offer it plain or soak their pellets in it (which they go bananas for!).