Huge litter!

One of my prego rats gave birth yesterday to our biggest litter yet! She had 23 babies! I was shocked! Before this our largest litter was 15. She seems to be feeding them all just fine too!

What were your biggest litters?

P.s. I'll get pics later tonight!

Good lord! thats a lotta little babies!

I had one pore ole momma spit out 37 pups....I had to put another female in with her to help take care of all the babies....personally would have prefered a smaller litter b/c the larger the litter, it seems, the smaller/scrawnier the pups :confused:

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Originally Posted by MissDixie

I had one pore ole momma spit out 37 pups....I had to put another female in with her to help take care of all the babies....personally would have prefered a smaller litter b/c the larger the litter, it seems, the smaller/scrawnier the pups :confused:

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HOLY CRAP! 37?!?! I can't imagine being that poor mom... 37?!?!

I just had 2 moms drop 15 babies each. Their my biggest litters.

A virgin female just dropped a litter of 13. Glad she did good her first time :P

I see the number "23" and my mind immediately goes to, "how long could that keep my BPs' bellies happy?" :P Congrats on the big litter!

Our rats have been doing great for us this year. We keep our breeders and treat them as pets, so we try not to over breed them, but they have been keeping a great supply of feeders available for us. It seems like they are giving us one big litter after another.

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Originally Posted by MissDixie

I had one pore ole momma spit out 37 pups....I had to put another female in with her to help take care of all the babies....personally would have prefered a smaller litter b/c the larger the litter, it seems, the smaller/scrawnier the pups :confused:

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Also on this yea. I had 2 litters of 15 each and a litter of 7 all on the same day. So i took 2 from each litter so the mom with 7 ended up with 11 and the ones with 15 ended up with 13. Doesnt make much of a diff i dont think but at least its 2 less she has to feed lol

my mommas gave me 17 and 10 this time. do u all just keep the males in there with them. i had my male in the tank them cause at first the one momma was supposed to be a feeder but my bp didnt want it and it has now became another breeder since im getting 2 more bp on thursday (pastel,normal:D) so gotta keep up on the rats they cost too much at local breeders. the female that had 10 was a virgin and the other female was a 2nd time momma so each time they get pregnant they have more and more each litter.

I average 13 to 15 on all of my litters except first time moms and they average 12 to 13

Anything over 20 kits is exceptionally large :)

Now that's a huge litter!!:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MissDixie

I had one pore ole momma spit out 37 pups....I had to put another female in with her to help take care of all the babies....personally would have prefered a smaller litter b/c the larger the litter, it seems, the smaller/scrawnier the pups :confused:

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I can't believe that a rat could spit out 37 pups. In thousands of litters I have one seen 20+ just a handful of times...literally.

30+ is something I have never heard.

37 is like when someone tells you a story about a 30 lb largemouth bass that they caught. I just don't believe that it could happen. I would have to see the evidence, and I would like to do an autopsy on the mother when she died. Look at the uterine horns of a rat and trying to imagine 37 embryos developing in there just doesn't seem physically possible.

37 babies is more like three litters. It would be three good litters, two phenomenal litters, or one impossible litter. YMMV.

WOW!:O I would keep all the girls and a boy. Thats genetic. Congrats;)

I have a few females that have thrown litters in the low 20's.

those will be some sore nipples.... :D lol and a lotta snake food ;) lol

16 Rats
15 Mice

My virgin mama rat just gave birth to 13 little cuties on friday.
I hate watching them grow...I get attatched. ugg

Thanks for the comments all! Momma and babies still seem to be doing well, but I haven't gotten any pics yet. We wanted to wait another day before doing much with them.

Here is a pic of the litter. We counted 22 this time around. Not sure if we lost one or if we just mis-counted the first time. Either way...Here they are!

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...aby/22Rats.jpg

Wow, just wow. My biggest so far has been 14.