Rat Orphans

I had a female today who was having MAJOR labor complications. I could not save the female. I elected to put her down and I did an immediate c-section to try and save her pups. I managed to save all twelve babies. I have two lactating moms right now. I shuffled litters around in hopes that one will take on the newborns. Is there any tips/suggestions you have in order for this to be successful? I would love for these pups to survive. I was very attached with their mother and I'm very sad to lose her. Losing the pups would make her death be in vein. I want to make sure this ends up as a happy ending.

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Originally Posted by BHReptiles

I had a female today who was having MAJOR labor complications. I could not save the female. I elected to put her down and I did an immediate c-section to try and save her pups. I managed to save all twelve babies. I have two lactating moms right now. I shuffled litters around in hopes that one will take on the newborns. Is there any tips/suggestions you have in order for this to be successful? I would love for these pups to survive. I was very attached with their mother and I'm very sad to lose her. Losing the pups would make her death be in vein. I want to make sure this ends up as a happy ending.

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Don't pull all of the nursing doe's pups before introducing the new ones. If they are around the same size, split the litter in half and try to get each doe to accept half. If one (or both) does is nursing a substantially larger litter, the larger babies will squash the newborns. So, you'll need to pull all but 3-4 of the original babies and place them with the other mom. Then gradually place the new babies in with the mom (3-4 at a time) until she's accepted all of them. As you put the new ones in, take one of the larger ones out. The whole process should take 1-2 hours. Keep them warm while you are waiting to place them with the new mother.

That's pretty much what I did. I actually just fed off some of another litter this morning. The more mothering of the does is the one I'm putting the litter with. I kept the newborns wrapped up and held next to me. I move one or two of the foster doe's litter to another doe and replace with a few babies. A little later I did it again and so forth. Now she has the whole new litter and a couple of pups from her last litter in with her. Both moms seem to be nursing their "new" babies. So far it looks successful. Both does are first time moms which made me very nervous, but they appear to be doing okay.

The older pups are 1.5 and 2 weeks old, so there's a pretty large size difference. Do you think I should go ahead and move all the doe's litter to the other female who has the 2 week old pups

Wow! Good job on the c section! I would have never been able to do that.
I've moved whole litters and replaced them with younger ones before, I find it to be most successful when at least one of that moms originals is left for a few days, then taken out.
As Long as they are already accepted there should be no problem


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So far so good. Babies have milk bands and mom is tending after them.

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Originally Posted by BHReptiles

So far so good. Babies have milk bands and mom is tending after them.

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Awesome job . Im sure dissections from school helped with the c-section.. I hate to say this but i bought a bunch of xl rats frozen and a few where full of babies and I wanted to practice a c section and even though all the babies where dead I have to say it was a breeze because of zoology classes. I wanted to be prepared to do it if I ever have to do an emergency c-section. Same reason as you why let the babies die, that would leave the mother dying in vein

Even though I was very attached to their momma, I knew, deep down, that she wouldn't make it. It's hard to have to choose when to put an animal down, but I think that I made the right decision in the end. I have beautiful, healthy babies to show for it. I'll probably sell this litter as pets and keep a female for myself, especially if one ends up looking like mom.


A little update on the babies. I went in last night to make sure they were all looking good. Sometime over Sunday night/Monday morning, two had passed away and were eaten by the foster mom. I don't believe she killed them. I honestly think that they died and she cleaned them up. She's been nothing but an excellent mother so I have no reason to believe she ate them. When I cleaned cages the night before, there were a couple that had no milk bands. It's possible that they just didn't get the hang of nursing and perished. All other ten look great! All have milk bands and are very active. Foster mom is doing well with them.

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Originally Posted by BHReptiles

Even though I was very attached to their momma, I knew, deep down, that she wouldn't make it. It's hard to have to choose when to put an animal down, but I think that I made the right decision in the end. I have beautiful, healthy babies to show for it. I'll probably sell this litter as pets and keep a female for myself, especially if one ends up looking like mom.


A little update on the babies. I went in last night to make sure they were all looking good. Sometime over Sunday night/Monday morning, two had passed away and were eaten by the foster mom. I don't believe she killed them. I honestly think that they died and she cleaned them up. She's been nothing but an excellent mother so I have no reason to believe she ate them. When I cleaned cages the night before, there were a couple that had no milk bands. It's possible that they just didn't get the hang of nursing and perished. All other ten look great! All have milk bands and are very active. Foster mom is doing well with them.

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That's great that they are doing well, sorry for the loss of 2 , the mom only eats young if they are dying, dead, malnourished or she is malnourished. This is what I have been reading, I am no professional just saying what I have read. It sounds like you take great care of them so the mother wasn't malnourished, so I'm assuming she realized they weren't going to make and ate them , rats have great maternal instincts.



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This particular mom loves to eat. I almost didn't see her pregnancy because she's a little fluffy (don't tell her I said that!). I bet the two that ate no longer there were sick or dying or dead. When I did the c-section, I was hoping a couple would live. That fact that I've only lost three and 10 are alive surpasses my expectation!

So sorry that you lost the mom and two babies. I'm glad to hear that the other 10 are doing well!