i got a naked female...she came with pinks. help

Wow, this happens so often, young mother rats. It's pretty sad, but thats how I came home with my first male and girls. We were expecting the girl we bought to be pregnant, but luckily she wasn't. As it's been almost 2 months and she's JUST getting to size.
I agree with everyone though, def not good pet store. Good luck, hope she pulls it off. :)

im really trying to be positive here!!! :taz: she seemed to be doing well this morning. ill be sure to keep an eye on her. she is a pet and wont be bred.. we dont plan on having her bred ever again.. and even if we did it wouldnt be until shes much much bigger, infact aside from her own babies which will be taken away when they wean there are no male rats even in the house

Ok; I wish you the best with them.

Did you have a male at one point? I coulda sworn you had a litter recently

we did have a male at one point for only a little bit. we had introduced him to our girls (haired) and found out they were too small and took him out. he was really nice at first and started biting so we took him back to the feeder breeder we got him from.. so far none of the girls that were with him are pregnant. this is our first litter and she actually came with her babies

"so whats suggested here? im housing her on shredded phone book pages and a couple articles of clothing my children donated to her. right now shes in a 20gal long tank with a screen lid. half of it is covered with a towel to make sure its dark and comforting.. any suggestions? "

Are you still using old phone book paper and some clothes as bedding? I think it would be best to get her on some aspen, or other bedding. What are you using for your other girls?

20 gal is pretty big enclosure, but giving her a nest box will keep the babies and her warm. It can really be anything, just not a shoe box as i imagine that would get nasty pretty quick.

Mom has a pretty small litter there, but like everyone said, just make sure you wash your hands well, and keep mom warm, and I think everything will go fine.

If your running out of room so quickly though, I would hold off on buying any more rats until you have a decent quarantine room. It sounds like you have these rats in 3 different enclosures now? Your originals, the new dumbo [?], and now momma rat. It's going to be hard to keep everything clean between them.

I know you do want more rats, but you really should quarantine more effectively, esp with the numbers getting high now, it would be devastating to lose them. I know exactly how it is, I see some adorable blue agouti or dumbo fawn and i want them right now! But I also know that my colony is worth 1000 times more than that one rat, and I don't have a seperate room to keep any new ones in.

were actually not getting more rats.. we have two cages right now. a rudd with six girls and the 20gal with mommy and her babies. the dumbo was taken out to a friend of mine to get her out of the house and later died. weve sinced bleached everything here in hopes its not something the other girls can catch. the mommy and her babies have not been near the other rats so were hoping they are safe, or at least as safe as they can be away from everyone else. mommy has a tupperware container in her tank that was origonally for a litter pan to maybe get her used to the idea but shes moved her babies in there. she no longer has cloths as ive been told the strings of fabric can get loose and harm her or babies. she has carefresh ultra in the enclosure with her, some loose torn phone books and a few peices of polyester (fleece)

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Originally Posted by AshleyB

were actually not getting more rats.. we have two cages right now. a rudd with six girls and the 20gal with mommy and her babies. the dumbo was taken out to a friend of mine to get her out of the house and later died.

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Something that concerns me is you got the beige hooded and the dumbo girl from the same people right? bringing your count up to 7.
"remy: 134g
emmy: 151g
miss big ears: 132g
molly: 113g
dolly: 99g

cinderella (new blonde dumbo) 232g
kitty (new beige hooded) 293g "

And the blonde dumbo has died since then. Is the beige hooded still with the other girls? You say you have 6 plus the naked rat. So you never quarantined kitty???

What I'm saying; your pair of new girls that came together were kept together, and one of them died. I strongly suggest you take that beige hooded out of the enclosure from the other rats. OF course its been a few weeks now, and what ever could have been spread prob already has. These animals drink from the same water, eat the same food and run around on the same bedding.

You also mentioned that you will not be buying any more rats, which is good. I would suggest taking everyone in to see the vet before they get sick. You dont know the history behind the 2 new girls, and one has died so far. Not good odds at all.

Just some advice, but it pays to be safe than sorry.

yes, that is true and i have spoken to my vet (who i worked for 5+yrs) and he said i can bring them down whenever i want. i had kitty and cinderella (kitty is the beige hooded and cinder is the one who died) they were in "quarentine" away from everyone else in another room, in another cage.. we would change clothes and wash hands after holding them. after the week they were alone everyone seemed fine, no weight loss, clear eyes and noses so thats when we put them together. it wasnt long after that cinder took a downhill spiral and eventually died. kitty is still with the other girls as they have been together and exposed to one another for a few weeks already. we are weighing on a twice weekly basis and everyone is maintaining weight (or gaining for our younger girls), no one is even getting that pink/red stain on their noses anymore either. where as cinder had it almost all the time. so we have:

miss big ears, kitty, remy, emmy, dolly and molly (6) sharing a rudd cage
mommy (luna) and her five babies are in a 20gal tank in another room completely.. the cages aren't even within 20ft of each other. the cage cinder was in until she left has been emptied, bleached and is sitting on our balcony in the sun, as is the cage the other six girls were in, it too was bleached. all the toys and food/water containers have also been bleached, any hooks used for the cages, bleached. the bedding and hammocks or anything that might potentially hold disease (including partially chewed toys/wooden blocks) has been thrown away. at this point aside from taking the rats to the vet ive done what i can. seperating kitty at this point i think will make her depressed and cause more harm than good (correct me if im wrong please), if the other girls are going to get it they would have by now, they have been together long enough unfortunetly.

i have most certainly learned a very important lesson with quarentine.. bet your booty i wont
A: be taking in anymore rescues (its caused me more headache than good, in fact their owner isn't even speaking to me anymore and she was almost daily)

B: when the time comes i wont be buying from anyone i havnt already worked with (pet world i worked for or the breeder.. i most likely wont be going back to underground where i got mommy cause its bothered me to think she was bred as young as she was due to negligence. i do feel though i did the right thing by bringing her and babies home) none of the rats i got from either of those places have had problems, they were well socialized and fat.. i wasn't thrilled with the feeder breeder only because everyone was housed outside (shaded but its HOT)

i thank everyone for their comments and critizism

what boggles me about the dumbo is the owner only had them.. the two of them for almost a year (per her) she had NEVER (so she said) had a medical problem with them. they were the only rats ever. she did tell us the dumbo was more shy but otherwise she was fine all along. they ate crappy food, lived in a cramped cage and rarely came out for exercise they did hold them alot but thats it.. she got really skinney, refused to eat, arched her back all the time and breathed very heavy.. is it possible (hear me out) that she was depressed or stressed to the point of death? could one of my rats have had a cold but because of her comprimised system of being stressed and possibly depressed caused her so much strain she died? i know rats can be touchy... so, she gotta new home with new people but stayed with her friend in their cage.. then after about a week (when problems started) she moved in with the 5 other girls, in a HUGE cage compared to what she was in, had an abrupt diet change (they didnt send her food with them) and all the stress just made her worse? kitty stopped "hanging out" with her and started bonding to us and the other rats.. they would sleep together at first but after a day or so she really didnt hang out with the dumbo.. is it possible?

I would leave that last question to more experienced rat owners.

I still think it would be smart to exercise your free vet visit and get them in asap. You don't know what happened to the dumbo, and only a Vet can diagnose any problems, not us on the internet. I think at this point you have learned your lesson and thats great. Just consider that Vet trip necessary at this point. And getting your beige hooded seperated now may seem futile, but you should. She's not going to get depressed by herself if you give her more attention. That is what many rat fan sites say on seperation. It will affect her in the long run, but not for a quarantine period. Which in my opinion should last for 3 months.