maybe i should call her chomper...

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Originally Posted by jglass38

No..She never delivered any. It was my first pregnant female I experienced a problem with. She started to bleed lightly like all do at the beginning of pregnancy and then no babies. She was huge. I wasn't sure whether she would eventually have them or not. I did what I could to make her comfortable. It was pretty sad. Anything else I could have done for the future?

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:( sounds like maybe the first baby got stuck in her birth canal but i'm not experienced with birthing troubles. i've been lucky thus far and not had any problems.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

:( sounds like maybe the first baby got stuck in her birth canal but i'm not experienced with birthing troubles. i've been lucky thus far and not had any problems.

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Most likely. It sucks but what can you do...

After I ruined a $10 pair of gloves on the rats, I decided hydrogen peroxide, neosporin, and a band-aid is a hell of a lot cheaper!!

If it was a problem with a big pup and a small pelvis Jamie or a pup laid wrong in the birth canal there's just nothing you can do other than rush her to a vet for a c-section which would likely not be realistic nor something she'd survive the stress of. I know they probably can do c's on rodents but it's not something I'd personally consider in our colony. Better to be prepared to put a suffering mother down I figure.

I'm so sorry you had to experience this. We have only had one horrific birth and that was when I got poor Alita already hugely pregnant from that pet store. I've never seen a rat struggle or bleed that much and I was on the phone with Becky in a panic over it.

There's really nothing you can do Jamie to avoid this other than what I know you are already doing. Raise healthy females to a good size and body weight, breed them at the right ages and hope for the best...it's all anyone can do when you breed anything. Unfortunately some female creatures are just not meant to successfully breed and she was sadly one of them it seems.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

If it was a problem with a big pup and a small pelvis Jamie or a pup laid wrong in the birth canal there's just nothing you can do other than rush her to a vet for a c-section which would likely not be realistic nor something she'd survive the stress of. I know they probably can do c's on rodents but it's not something I'd personally consider in our colony. Better to be prepared to put a suffering mother down I figure.

I'm so sorry you had to experience this. We have only had one horrific birth and that was when I got poor Alita already hugely pregnant from that pet store. I've never seen a rat struggle or bleed that much and I was on the phone with Becky in a panic over it.

There's really nothing you can do Jamie to avoid this other than what I know you are already doing. Raise healthy females to a good size and body weight, breed them at the right ages and hope for the best...it's all anyone can do when you breed anything. Unfortunately some female creatures are just not meant to successfully breed and she was sadly one of them it seems.

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Thanks Jo. And sorry for the thread hijack!

I did what I could and since I didnt know whether she was going to still possibly have them I didnt want to preemptively put her down.

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Thanks Jo. And sorry for the thread hijack!

I did what I could and since I didnt know whether she was going to still possibly have them I didnt want to preemptively put her down.

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I know you were doing all you could hon and of course you don't want to interfere in any animal's birthing too soon or you can actually cause more problems upsetting a female in the middle of delivery (heck us human females get a mite testy when we are busy popping out a baby too). It is just nature's way that some females don't survive birthing and you see it with all species. A sad fact of life but thankfully not one commonly seen in healthy female rats of breeding age, just a bad luck thing and nothing you can or could do to prevent it hon.

Had this female birthed before and you had any of her female daughters I would say to not use them as breeders in case the birthing issue is a genetic problem with their pelvis but since she'd not had a previous litter, this is not the case here.

I lost a female not to long ago that I had to put down because she had a prolapse after giving birth to 16 babies. I felt horrible and I knew that the 2 moms couldn't foster all 16 babies plus their 15+ babies. Just nothing you can do about it. Better luck next time Jamie