No More Chances

It came off as an attack. Basically saying I don't know whats best for my animals. I only "think" I know what I'm doing.

Update: I checked in on Doe and the babies. She's "nursing" them again. I'm not sure if they are getting any milk from her. I'm going to check for milkbands, but she is keeping them warm and she fusses over them like they were her own. She such a wonderful mama rat. She's a definite keeper. She will get such a nice long break after this.

All of my females bury their litters in aspen. Whenever they have babies I add extra aspen.

Also I'm not talking they bury them an inch, sometimes 2-3 inches and they are always fine.

Every rodent I've ever kept (mice, hamsters, rats, gerbils, chinchillas, etc) will bury babies, sometimes VERY deep down. The gerbils will bury them as deep as they can get.
All of them have always been just fine, only time I had trouble was when my rats didn't have enough bedding to bury them and squashed one with cardboard trying to cover them up. Its just in their instincts.

I dont know why you think it's an attack when everyone who's posted so far has said that you probably did not need to remove the babies, and that rats will bury them for reasons already stated so far.

It's constructive critisism. I don't see why you need to get so upset over some advice from people that have kept rats and mice for years, and are trying to give you tips!

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

It came off as an attack. Basically saying I don't know whats best for my animals. I only "think" I know what I'm doing.

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a nursing mother know whats best for her litter in most cases.

-she will kill them if she is being stressed too much
-not getting proper nutrition, not enough food
-she knows she cant handle them
-improper living conditions
-population is too high
-babies are weak

humans may think they know what is best for the critters, but like the old saying goes "mom knows best".

you posted asking for info and i gave it. you wont always hear what you want to hear in life, especially on the net. as to asking me to leave this thread. thanks, i had a nice little chuckle. :D

Moms do bury their babies. I myself do use the pelleted wood bedding with my nursing moms. I never have enough in there where the moms could even bury the babies in it; I change it to fresh pellets a few days before the mom is going to give birth. Along with this I provide a secure hide spot. The moms invariably use that.. I also add in some shavings for nesting material. Please do Not use socks or cloth pieces. I recently had a poor baby's hand get caught in the thread of a sock I had placed in there.. it looked painful and I will not use cloth ever again.

cut mom a break - she only did what she was supposed to do. You're talking about punishing her for it with her life, and then get upset when people tell you you're wrong.

I hate to sound like a bad person, but because I need to build up a strong colony, I have no space for rats like this. She is a mean SOB. Another female I have is an excellent mother. I had almost 100% survival rate with her first litter. She was great with them. Only one died and that was an accidental death. That is the kind of rat mom I need my others to be. Any sign of bad parenting, and you are out. So no, I don't think I'm being a bad person by wanting to feed off this individual rat.

You know your rats best, but she wasn't being a bad mother by burying them with the only substrate available to her. Had it been loose aspen, she'd be doing what all my mothers do - which is bury them to keep them warm while she takes a break - nothing malicious or "bad" about that at all. It just happened that the substrate she had to work with wasn't ideal.

I have females that bury their babies. They usually do so to take a break to eat/drink and then un-bury them when she nurses.