Rats Share mothering!

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Originally Posted by Fearless

I on the other had have had very good luck with communal mothering, seems like about every tenth litter or so i will find two females who will try to "steal" babies. Actually watched them circle around a tub when one mother would go get a baby the other would hurry and go get the one she had stolen so they moved rats from one litter to the other and back for several minutes. But have noticed that when two mothers are in the groove that they both share the duties well enough that neither mother ever looks as exhausted as i have seen with one mother with a decent sized litter. Another aspect i like about doing it this way is some first time mothers bodies just dont seem to handle the draw of babies as well as older females, and so its much easier to adopt these babies onto more suitable mothers.

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I haven't had any first time mothers react negatively when nursing. If they are old enough and a good weight, they should fair just the same as other females past the first litter. In fact, in my experience, my mothers gain body mass and generally grow larger when they have their first litter.

And these aren't even the best genes out there, being smaller than most rats... I'm working my way up and have seen great success so far. ;)

That probably wasn't the best way to describe it. I can just see a general lack of as shiny fur and the get me away from these @#%ers look on there face. Especially right around the time for weaning. Dont know how to describe it in words but you can just tell that they would be better off without the babies.

Trevor, pretty much every female rat by the time weaning rolls around is about as sick to death of the teat leeches as any animal can get LOL. First time females can get more overwhelmed compared to the more experienced females. Just like any animal they tend to get better with their litters with experience though rats do tend to be some of the best first time moms out there. :)