My RAT HAD BABIES!!!

IM SO EXCITED I JUST WENT TO CHECK ON MY RAT AND I SAW A BUNCH OF LITTLE BABY RATS, THEY'RE SO CUTE! My first litter I've ever had. Though the mother seemed to be being kind of ruff. She was like walking all over them and they are supposed to move them with their mouths right? Cause I did hear that they could eat them. Well I am so amazed and was so suprised! This is the coolest thing ever! :D

Awesome job man! I can't wait until I drop my first litter of little raties.

yeah thanks! I'll post some pics once i know they're all okay. It was the rats first time and I think she had around 10 but I'm not sure. I think I put a little too much paper shreds in the cage, the babies are kind of getting lost under it.

If she's a first time mom, I wouldn't expect a whole lot from her...it's always hit or miss with their first litter or two. Try not to mess with her too much, only go in her cage for necessities (changing water, adding food, etc). Rats are generally good parents (as opposed to mice, where females' first litters are usually a disaster), so good luck with the free feeders!

thanks, i hope they'll do ok. i'll try not to bother them that much, when i went to look at them again she had them all together and she was nursing but i found 1 that she forgot or didnt see away from the rest. i picked it up and put it with the rest, i hope she didnt forget any others. next time i wont use as many shreds so she wont lose or forget about any..

and i breeded the rats like this... albino with a black and white one... i didnt notice any babies with any black skin just all pink, does that mean that theyre all going to be white albinos? because i dont know how the gentics work with rats.. if the albino type is dominant or what.

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Originally Posted by jwk811

and i breeded the rats like this... albino with a black and white one... i didnt notice any babies with any black skin just all pink, does that mean that theyre all going to be white albinos? because i dont know how the gentics work with rats.. if the albino type is dominant or what.

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Probably about 75% of them will be black. Albinos are recessive. Anyway, the black skin will show up in a few days on those that are black & white.

oh sweet! thanks! that good!

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Originally Posted by jwk811

oh sweet! thanks! that good!

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Good luck with the litter . Let me know if you have any problems ;) .

The adults do walk all over the babies. The one off by himself? YOu'll see a lot of that. Either he hung on nursing when mom went to leave, and was dragged off, or she moved him, but they sometimes move babies around, or they will crawl around. It doesn't seem to bother them at all, I sometimes put them back, sometimes leave them. Give them a couple days and you should see darkening of the skin. They very well could end up all albinos, if the dad carried albino too.
Give mom some treats from me! And congrats!
Wolfy

The dads not albino just the mom. So as someone else said the babies should be 1/4 albino most likely. And I left the mom to have her babies without the dad, is that a good thing? I didn't want the dad to hurt the babies or eat them. Thanks wolf, and I hope I can get some pics soon if you guys are interested.

and I have a question.. how come pet stores sell mainly only albinos? and I have counted all the babies and actually have a total of 14! And thats for a first litter! Maybe she'll have even more next time!

If the mom was albino, then she was a double carrier of a recessive albino gene. If the father carried the gene(he would not show it with only one) then some babies would be coming out albino. Luck of the draw, unless of course rat genetics is somehow different.
a a
a B

Do the pundit, you'll end up with lots of albinos. In my experiance, albinos 1. tend to have larger litters since lab rats were bred to have larger litters. 2. tend to not have people get too attached to them, since they have no distinctive marking to differenciate them from all the others.
Just my theory.
Wolfy(Pictures? Of course we all want pictures!)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

If the mom was albino, then she was a double carrier of a recessive albino gene. If the father carried the gene(he would not show it with only one) then some babies would be coming out albino. Luck of the draw, unless of course rat genetics is somehow different.
a a
a B

Do the pundit, you'll end up with lots of albinos.

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It could be that the male rat is a pure or dominant black berkishire or black hooded rat.

So this is possible:

B B
a a

25% black, 50% het, 25% albino....or..............

B B
B a

50% black, 50% het

am I right?

I am not sure if a het rat can appear albino or if all hets appear black. If they can appear albino, then the second punnit square is plausible.

okay thats good. the mother bit me when i went near her babies. it hurt! lol. she never bit me before that makes me sad. at least shes being a good mother. she really is, suprising for a first timer.. shes been moving them around and nursing and being protective.. and I'll get pics tomorrow

Also, want to see your rat goes berserk? Give them some crickets!
Like chocolate for rats!
Wolfy

Congrats!:D

Our gerbil just had her second litter with six fat, healthy, babies. (Her first litter was a disaster.):(

14 babies, WOW!

yeah 14 babies for the first litter, i was suprised too.. im trying to breed gerbils too but they haven't had any babies yet, its been like over a month, i think i saw them mating too.. and all the babies are healthy and not any have died during the birth! ive got two more pregnant rats that should be giving birth in a few weeks! im gonna go take some pictures now so stay posted!!

These are the babies alone.. 14 healthy pups all together.. so cute

http://www.freewebs.com/jwk811/Rats%20002.jpg

Heres the mother with her babies though I knida scared her away from nursing

http://ballpython.zoomshare.com/files/Rats_001.jpg

And heres the dad if you wanted to know what the babies will soon look like... it looks here that hes all black but he does have white under him and behind..

http://ballpython.zoomshare.com/files/Rats_003.jpg

Sorry the pics are so big I didn't know how to make them any smaller.. I will post more pics once they get a little older to let you know how they are doing.. :D

nice rats . congrats on the first batch .

Wow you can really see the difference in the color of the skin now.
http://ballpython.zoomshare.com/files/Rats_014_2_.jpg
And I found out how to change the size.. :D