Maybe I need to foster these babies? HELP!

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Originally Posted by cdavidson9

Once weaned they cannot be mixed by sex? they have to be in their own grow out tubs according to sex? Is that because the males can impregnate the females but since they are so young it can kill them or something? HELP! As of now the male and female weaners are all in the same tub.. It sound like I need to make another tub set up then...

Once again, thank for all the advice guys. Being new to breeding rats I need all the help i can get.

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Your probably ok to mix sexes in tubs until the testicles drop in the males which is probably give or take 2 months...It is POSSIBLE for does to be bred well under 4 months old. Which is horribly dangerous for a doe. Just because they CAN breed doesnt mean they SHOULD.
I wouldnt breed a doe until AT LEAST 6 months old. They need time for their pelic bones to fuse and support burthing kittens.
If your rats are weaned and can be properly sexed I would seperate them. They will get plenty of comfort with their same sex siblings. But thats just my opinion! :)

Well an update on the babies, I still have the double rex moms caring for the babies that they are doing fine! I havnt found a dead baby yet and its been a few days now. Seems like they are ok moms, im happy i didnt have to foster them. :)

That is great! It is best not to foster in the first 3 days if you can help it unless the foster mom also just gave birth. The first 3 days the mothers milk is Colostrum which is full of antibodies and if the newborns don't receive it by the foster mother then they are less likely to survive.

That being said I had a bad situation where a litter of 11 mother died when they were about 5 days old and I had to bottle feed them and foster them to a mother with a litter of 11. It was a lot of work. I had to check their weight and rotate them so that the smaller litter was getting enough milk without the older rats (older by 1 1/2 days) didn't always win the nipple.

To make it worse the second mother also died. AFter feeding off 2 of the weekest babies, I was down to 20 and had to foster them to a mother of 8. I also gave the whole litter formula with cooked oatmeal so that the older one were not as hungry, and the mother loved it too. So now I had one mother with 28 babies. I was so glad when they finally hit 21 days and I could ween them. I still gave them Formula mixed with oatmeal for about a week just to make sure they were fine. In the end it all worked out fine. Good luck!

Oh and Cdavidson I would separate them, their balls drop pretty early, and they can actually even get the mother pregnant again if they are left with her too long. You could probably leave the girls with mom though if you don't have enough separate tanks.

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Originally Posted by MoshBalls

That is great! It is best not to foster in the first 3 days if you can help it unless the foster mom also just gave birth. The first 3 days the mothers milk is Colostrum which is full of antibodies and if the newborns don't receive it by the foster mother then they are less likely to survive.

That being said I had a bad situation where a litter of 11 mother died when they were about 5 days old and I had to bottle feed them and foster them to a mother with a litter of 11. It was a lot of work. I had to check their weight and rotate them so that the smaller litter was getting enough milk without the older rats (older by 1 1/2 days) didn't always win the nipple.

To make it worse the second mother also died. AFter feeding off 2 of the weekest babies, I was down to 20 and had to foster them to a mother of 8. I also gave the whole litter formula with cooked oatmeal so that the older one were not as hungry, and the mother loved it too. So now I had one mother with 28 babies. I was so glad when they finally hit 21 days and I could ween them. I still gave them Formula mixed with oatmeal for about a week just to make sure they were fine. In the end it all worked out fine. Good luck!

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Just curious - what was the outcome of this monumental effort of fostering and bottle feeding? Are all of the rats now pets?

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Originally Posted by mues155

Your probably ok to mix sexes in tubs until the testicles drop in the males which is probably give or take 2 months...It is POSSIBLE for does to be bred well under 4 months old. Which is horribly dangerous for a doe. Just because they CAN breed doesnt mean they SHOULD.
I wouldnt breed a doe until AT LEAST 6 months old. They need time for their pelic bones to fuse and support burthing kittens.
If your rats are weaned and can be properly sexed I would seperate them. They will get plenty of comfort with their same sex siblings. But thats just my opinion! :)

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I'm pretty sure pelvic fusion in rats is a myth, and originally was used as a reason to breed rats young, not old. I've bred tons of rats under 4 months, several as young as 6 weeks. The only really bad effect I've noticed is they are often terrible mothers.