Bad Mothers

Whats the prevalence of Rat mothers being a bad mom. I had one drop a litter and by the second day she had let 7 of them die. Took the other 6 and dropped them in with the other tub with a litter that dropped to day after. They all seem to be doing fine now.

I dont know when to pull mom and babies, and my friend says he doesnt bother. Should I pull Mom and babies of the next litter and separate into a separate tub and see what I get.

I'd give it a shot at least. I think leaving the mothers in with the colony tends to stress/distract them from caring for the litter...can definitely lead to higher mortality rates from my experience.

Then again, there are also just bad mothers.....these girls get introduced to my boas :)

Yeah I am going to figure out which mother it was and let my big boy eat well.

All the others are fine. This was litter6 and it just didnt go well. I am going to make some changes this weekend.

Sometimes first time moms don't understand what's happening and they neglect their litter.

It's always good to have another mom nursing at the same time.


I always give moms 2 chances, if by the second one they didn't figure it out, they're sold as a large rat.

I find that when I separate the mother and babies from the rest of the colony. The litter does a lot better and they seem to grow better. Try and separate the female before she drops her litter and you should see a difference.

i prefer to put mom in a nursing tub when she looks like about to burst...this way, she can go on labor without getting distrubed. i seldom encounter bad moms with this set up.
the pinkies can go a few hours without feeding, and their hunger squeals can help trigger the mother instinct for first time moms. there is more risk of a first time mom not learning to be a mother in a colony set up because there are other females that comfort the pinkies from a clueless mom.
also, some rats can intentionally cull part of a litter if its too big for them to handle or if they notice weak babies.

I like to have experienced good moms with new moms so that new moms learn. But some moms are just lousy mothers.

I have even had one murderous mother who deliberately carried pinkies to the water dish and dropped them in. She got eaten.