First litter

My rats have finally given me a wonderful litter of babies! Of course this comes after my one bp finally started eating f/t again!! :rolleyes: (figures! ;) ) They were born Monday and all 11 seem to be doing great. Miss Zeta seems to be a wonderful mom. She's very relaxed and seems to be nursing those little ones very well. I can't wait until they get a bit bigger, and will hopefully be keeping a female or two from this litter. The trick is not to end up with 11 new pets. :giggle: Just thought I'd share my newest little arrivals. :D

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...irstlitter.jpg

Very nice first litter Christie. You were and are obviously feeding and caring for the mamma rat well, those are lovely fat pinks with nice visible milkbands. Congrats!

Thanks. They're the cutest things, and squeaky too!! It's a good thing you told me that the mom will sometimes break up the litter. I almost freaked when I came in and could only see 6. A little searching turned up the remaining babies in another pile.

ahhhhhh they are so very cute aren't they :)

i'm hoping to get 11 from my next litter since mine was a mere 6.

So cute! I think its really neat how you can see their tummies all full of yummy milk. That's gotta mean happy babies!

Yeah, ususally when I had a mom "pop", I could always tell they had babies before I even got into the room, cause I could hear the peeping of the babies first. Congrats! And remember..... this litter= 1 pet, 10 feeders ...:P

They are super cute. The mom has been pretty cool with me checking them out. I love that you can see the milk bands too.

All those those cuties squeaking is getting to me. 10 pets and 1 feeder right? :oops: :doh:

My rat TJ had her first (and only) litter 7/22, she had a 14! I couldnt believe it....14 babies and she is such a tiny tiny girl.

I have only 5 left as Khan and Lola both LOVE gobbling them up.

I havent made any pets (im norotious for doing so) but Its sad to see em go.

Awesome Christie! I am so jealous...I still haven't gotten my first litter!

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Very nice first litter Christie. You were and are obviously feeding and caring for the mamma rat well, those are lovely fat pinks with nice visible milkbands. Congrats!

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Jamie has a nice visible beerband...

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Originally Posted by cassandra

Jamie has a nice visible beerband...

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Baby, that is not from beer, its a pizzaband.... :cool:

We should have a BP.net sponsored quiz that generates the answer to "what -band do I have?"

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...scotchband.jpg

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Originally Posted by cassandra

<-- has a scotchband

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Hardcore!

Made me a peeecture...(see above)

not to stunt this conversation but...

christie,

how's the litter doing?

in light,
aleesha

Congrats Christie your going to love breeding your own ratties.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

not to stunt this conversation but...

christie,

how's the litter doing?

in light,
aleesha

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They are doing wonderfully. All 11 growing. They are just starting to get some fur and whiskers. So soft and absolutely adorable. I'm REALLY starting to get nervous that I may become over attached. Of course they need to get a bit bigger before I can start feeding them off. The white ones go first. :oops: I have a couple that may end up all black and I'll try and keep a female one (if I have one). I'm thoroughly enjoying the little boogers.

Fuzzies are the absolute worst stage for me to feed off. Far to cute by half so I'm always glad if I don't have anything eating fuzzies for too long. Pinks/pups/weans whatever don't bother me...fuzzies get to me LOL. Like I told you though Christie, remember there will be more down the road and they don't stay cute fuzzies for long. I just try to not interact much with my potential feeders so I don't bond overly. My breeders and the ones I'm raising to be breeders...those I spoil LOL.

Here's an updated photo of the bunch! You can just start to see the fuzz and whiskers! When do they open their eyes?

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...babyupdate.jpg

They will be fuzzies from about day 8 to about day 14 Christie. Around day 12-14 or thereabouts their eyes will start to slit open and their ears will come fully upright, plus their coats are continuing to fill in nicely. They will also be walking more than just staggering around like drunken sailors. It's funny when one eye is open and one isn't yet....drunken winking sailors (of the rattie variety) LOL

They are looking good Christie! Well other than the one that's whining "moooooom, he's got his butt in my face AGAIN!" :P

Oh and don't be surprised if you find fuzzies all over the place in their enclosure. They get really determined to not let go of the teat and poor mother rat will just drag them along when she goes to eat and drink, shedding them along the way. Eventually one brave (albeit still blind yet) little bugger will lead the way in the "Assault on Nest Hill" whereby they waddle madly after mom if they haven't managed to do the hang on for dear life thing on her teat and she's left the nest. Some make the climb, others fall over on their fat butts, but they are all determined to get as much out of momma rat as they can! LOL Fuzzies are goofy!

:8: Oh my!!! I thought it was the kids yelling that. ;) Thanks Jo! They do stagger quite a bit, I thought they found my mudslide stash. :D

I have noticed mom is building a higher and higher wall to keep the little boogers in. lol. I've already noticed a stray one here or there. Sometimes I stick em back but they get back eventually even if I don't intervene! She's a good mommy! Although I can understand the urge to eat your children ... well every now and then you just have that urge! :rofl:

too true... too true!

my litter is so darned cute i don't know what to do. turns out we have 4 males and 2 females. and almost all of them are rex... that curlie hair on those little mini ratties... turns me to a pile o mush!

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

too true... too true!

my litter is so darned cute i don't know what to do. turns out we have 4 males and 2 females. and almost all of them are rex... that curlie hair on those little mini ratties... turns me to a pile o mush!

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ppsssstttt!! Where's the pics!! :please:

well... since it is YOUR thread and you are begging... i'll post them here :D

i love the rex (curly) hair on these little ones. they are so gentle and loving... they just LOVE to be held. esp since my 7 yr old holds them about 20 times a day LOL

we are keeping the black rex and a silky hooded with the striping down her back. (the 2nd from the bottom and the top ratties in the first pic) the rest are males. i wish we didn't have to feed them... as they are sooooooooo adorable!

http://www.timelessspirit.com/images...s/ratties2.jpg

http://www.timelessspirit.com/images...s/ratties1.jpg

:aww: They've gotten so big. :O WOW! They are super cute! :love:

Very nice litter Aleesha. If you really don't want to feed them off you could sell those two rex males as a pair for pets. They are so cute you'd likely find someone who would want them (pls always sell rats meant for pets in same gender pairs if you can).

jo,

unfortunately nothing is guaranteed here... all rats and mice are sold as pets/feeders in the bins at the petstores here.

the kids and i talked about that. we are going to send out some emails and see if anyone is interested in adopting them... the good news (or perhaps bad news) is we are using the same mama for breeding and since she's rex chances are, we are going to have every litter AS adorable as this one and if i want to actually feed my snakes... i'm going to have to use some cuties for food. :) :(

Oh okay somehow I got confused that you weren't breeding for feeders after all LOL (more coffee Juan!) Well cute or not they'll make good healthy food for your snakes and that is after all the natural way of things.

i wasn't going to use them for feeders cause i didn't think i could do it. but... since we got sabrina (suri RTB) i realized we have to... to make sure we have good quality food for them. (so you weren't remembering wrong)

so... my little girl LOVES the rattie babies and they have a good life before they are food. makes us all feel better about the situation.

i have the BEST news... my local petstore has agreed to take my beautiful boys (since they are so beautiful with that rex hair) and trade me them for frozen rats of the same size. this way, they can be sold as pets (she's going to make sure all the rex's go as pets - besides... as they are small (3.5 weeks old) so people don't pay $7 for such a small meal - when they can get mice for $2 at close to the same size...

so... we are very happy here!!!

obviously we are going to have to start feeding off the beautiful rex babies but not today... so today... we are feeling blessed indeed!

Congrats!! That sounds like a wonderful solution. :clap:

I just thought I'd post a pic of the little guys now. They've grown so quickly. Still no eyes open yet, but they are crawling all over the place. :aww:

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...yratupdate.jpg

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh waaaaaaay too cute!!!

You should see the little socks on most of them!! Very cute. Do you think it will help any to start naming them steak, hot dog, or snack?

i think breakfast, lunch and dinner LOL

i actually knew someone with pet mice named that!

Nice looking group Christie. Momma rat is doing a great job there. We just call all our rats destined to be feeders "dinnertime".