Tough Love

One of our female rats gave birth to her first litter of 9 pups last wednesday evening. The mom, her pups, and another pregnant adult female are housed together ( so the other female can 'help' with the kids), in the closet so they don't get a lot of disturbance. Last night after Shannon changed the bedding ( leaving a little bit of the old bedding around the 'nest' area) she noticed that there were only 8 pups, and that the runt of the litter was missing. I know that it is not uncommon for rat mothers to cull the 'sickly' or disabled pups on their own, but after a closer inspection of some of the pups, there are quite a few scratches, and some pretty deep gashes on a few. Is this normal for a mother to clean her pups that harshly, or is this a first time mother issue? At first it was very easy to see the milk bands on the pups, but lately they havn't been as prominant or as full as they should be. Pics will be posted of some of the injuries in a few.

I honestly would separate them. They are likely fighting over the babies and you're going to end up with dead or injured babies. Just let them have their own tub to raise their offspring in and it will be alot less stressful on everyone.

Ok, so my digital camera stinks and wont let me take a close up of any of the pups because they're to small, but I went ahead and took your advice Becky and seperated the two females. I'll give an update later on this week on their progress.

*Ack* Thanks for the quick advice... Mom is pretty protective of the babies and kinda moody so far. We can pick them up when she is doing something else, but if we leave the cage open for too long, she starts moving them and dragging them around. The stinker bit me last night b/c I was messing with her and not paying attention. All of the wounds look slightly older....well, at least last night-ish. Nothing still wet or fresh. I'll see if I can get pictures of at least the adults, mostly b/c they are cute and I haven't put any up yet :P If my camera is decent I'll see about getting pics of the babies too.

If she's a bit nervous with you around the litter it's best you keep out as much as possible. Some of my best natured females can be quite quick to nip once they've babies on the teat. Sounds like the females were dragging the pinks back and forth so best you seperated them. As far as runts being culled by the females, that's pretty normal stuff and I just leave it up to my female rats to know which of their offspring is viable and which aren't worth their time to raise.