advice please

i started with 1.2 and ended up with 1.3 since we kept a female that the bp's did not eat, and all of them look pregnant. anyway today one of them gave birth to only four pinkies but one of the other females kept trying to steal the pinkies from her so i moved the klepto to another tub.i'm trying to figure out why she would do that but can't. any advice? thanks

Rats are great mamas...if you have more than 1 litter they will share and help each other nurse. This makes things good cause if I have a very small litter I will just adopt the babies to another mama ans she will take care of them fine. I don't think the other mama will hurt the babies.

Sometimes females just do that. I'm not sure what the reason is, if there is one. Sometimes the babies will die because the mothers fight over them. I keep all my females in nursing tubs, 1 female per tub, for this very reason. I do have one "Grandma" rat that I will put with the first time moms if I feel the need. She will build the nest for her and the new mom and share the babies with the new mom. She's the only one I trust not to steal the babies. I make that decision by whether or not the first time mom builds a nest once she looks like she ate a softball. This has been working pretty well for me, and I've never lost a litter.

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Originally Posted by FatBoy

Rats are great mamas...if you have more than 1 litter they will share and help each other nurse. This makes things good cause if I have a very small litter I will just adopt the babies to another mama ans she will take care of them fine. I don't think the other mama will hurt the babies.

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We actually take 4 or 5 momma's that are about ready to give birth and house them in one large holding tub. They share the babies and so far so good.

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Originally Posted by MissDixie

We actually take 4 or 5 momma's that are about ready to give birth and house them in one large holding tub. They share the babies and so far so good.

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There are plenty of people that do that. I think it all depends on the rats you have. I seem to have a lot of kleptos.....

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Originally Posted by Isis

There are plenty of people that do that. I think it all depends on the rats you have. I seem to have a lot of kleptos.....

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The few bad momma rats we end up with just get wiped off the breeding list and put on the feeding list lol :)
Now mice on the other hand....I have a colony of nothing but klepto/cannibalistic mice.....:taz:

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Originally Posted by MissDixie

The few bad momma rats we end up with just get wiped off the breeding list and put on the feeding list lol :)
Now mice on the other hand....I have a colony of nothing but klepto/cannibalistic mice.....:taz:

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WOW...that's amaising...I never seperate mice. They all live, breed, and nurse in one colony with absolutely no problems. The only thing I have problems with cannabalism is my hairless rat colony, go figure.

WOW, thank you all, i feel better now. i thought there was a case of pinkynapping going on but the "klepto" prego rat was actually building her own nest so i guess she was just helping out but the new mom was not having it so i just seperated them to be on the safe side.

my mouse colony only the males turn canabalistic and well the rats hmmm theyre all great mamas

that's good to hear about the rat mamas, should i put the other female back? also i have the male in his own tub