Small Pups Dying Off

Doesn't sound like the mother rat is lactating well at all. She's not thin, is she? Sometimes a bit higher protein in the diet helps, so try adding some Wellness Senior dog food into the mix and see if that does the trick. If not, the babies will need to be fostered off to another mother, or they will continue to starve to death.

Also, if she's not lactating well, I wouldn't breed her again. It's very likely to occur the next go around as well.

She is not thin. I actually gave her some extra food while I was up there and she bit me, the little SOB. I think one of the pups will die soon. When I picked it up, it wasn't moving very much. Labored breathing and very weak and this one did not have a milk band. All the others had milk bands, but there were two other than the weak one that had very small milk bands. She had been nursing before I took a look at them.