My new lil Momma!

I fell asleep last night on the couch and at about 10 pm I woke up and went to bed. At that time I checked on the momma and found her nestled in a corner so I put a lil food in there for her and got her some fresh water and I went on to bed.

and......

This is what I woke up and found!!!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...5Image0017.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...5Image0023.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...5Image0025.jpg



there seems to be at least a dozen. I don't want to disturb my new momma. :aww: from what I can tell they all seem to be healthy! No still borns and no toss off's! YAY!!!

She did it all by herself! I am so proud of her!

Jeff was even a little excited! :giggle:


*edit...from that first pic there looks to be 11 but I will double check later in the day.

Oh MeMe, that's a nice litter and the female rat looks very healthy and fit! I'm counting at least 12 I can see and those are some excellent big milkbands so she's doing a good job with them. Congrats!

WooHoo!! Go Rattie, its your birthday! :carrot:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Oh MeMe, that's a nice litter and the female rat looks very healthy and fit! I'm counting at least 12 I can see and those are some excellent big milkbands so she's doing a good job with them. Congrats!

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I thought I counted 12...lol.

yea I made sure to check the milkbands. thanks again for the info!

but...now what do i do?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daaangconcepts

WooHoo!! Go Rattie, its your birthday! :carrot:

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gonna party like it's your birthday!!!

:rockon:

Hey congrats on that litter..Good looking group..I warn you rats are addictive..

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Hey congrats on that litter..Good looking group..I warn you rats are addictive..

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thanks...and I have heard that! ;)

I heard the same thing about tattoo's and snakes! :giggle:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jeffnme

thanks...and I have heard that! ;)

I heard the same thing about tattoo's and snakes! :giggle:

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No tats or snakes aren't addictive I mean I only have 5 tats and 17 snakes and wanting more :ohmygod:

Me:"Hi my names Ed and I'm a tattoo/snake/rat addict"
group: "Hi Ed....It ok we're addicts"

:D

Nothing really to do now hon, just make sure momma rat has lots of clean water and extra food and she'll deal with her litter. As they become pups, they'll begin to use her water bottle and nibble on her food so you'll need to up both but that's not till there about 18 to 20 days or so before they do that.

*supportive applause for Ed, while of course wildly denying I have ANY sort of addiction to snakes!*

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

*supportive applause for Ed, while of course wildly denying I have ANY sort of addiction to snakes!*

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The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem :giggle:

Hah! I just attending the meetings for the free coffee! :D

Thanks Jo...but when can or should I change her bedding?

I don't wanna disturb her nest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem :giggle:

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Hi my name is Meme and I am addicted to snakes/rats/tattoos and....

ROCKSTAR!!!

:rofl:

I usually leave moms and new babies be for a few days before any major cage cleaning (hers looks lovely and clean from your pics). I might reach in and quickly grab any blood tinged bedding and I do usually check the pinks within 24 hours to make sure everyone has a milkband and no one is genetically unfit. When I do that I simply tuck momma rat into a handy container, have a quick tidy of the cage, check the babies and pop them right back into her nest area without disturbing the nest much at all. Back momma rat goes in, she'll mess about checking her babies then settle back in usually.

When you are doing a regular full cage change out, just pop mom and babies into secure containers, change out the tub, pop the babies back in first into one corner and then momma. I usually put the litter seperate from her so I can use cage cleaning day as a time to once again have a quick hands on check of her growing offspring. Once they are all back in their now clean home, she'll busy herself sorting out where she'd like to place her litter.

Congrats!!!! Great litter too! :D :sunny: :D Those little wigglers will steal your heart! Be careful! :oops:

thanks Jo and Laura!!!

I went in and checked on her and she is happily nursing away!

My lil Girl Cait was so excited about them!

She is 8 and has said many times that she wants to be a vet when she grows up. :giggle:

what a cool learning experience for her! :D

You know I was really worried about our youngest son and helping him understand about some of the rats being feeders (he was 5 at the time). Amazingly after we explained it simply to him, talked a bit about predators/prey and how we eat meat just in another way....he accepted it without a fuss. He now is involved in all aspects from rat colony care to feeding his own snake. He'll point out rats in the colony and say..."those stay, they have names"...."those are food, they don't have names". Occasionally he will want to keep a few and we have to remind him that if we kept all the rats born, the snakes would starve and also we'd run out of room so no more ratties could get born. He sees this simple logic.

yea Cait asked me this morning if I was keeping them.

I told her we would have to see what we may keep but that I had them to feed the snakes.

She is pretty ok with it.

She would not be so ok with it if it were bunnies!

She has been wanting one forever now...we are looking at some dwarf bunnies for her now. for her b-day :)

That's one of the reasons we stopped feeding Prince the bunnies! :eek: lol

she would get a lil tear in her eye everytime! :(

Congrats on all those lovely babies:D

When we were fostering the big boa who did eat small bunnies we would stop at the bunny breeder, he knew we were coming so one of the right size was waiting to be discretely tucked in the back of the car. When we got home, one of us distracted Mikey, the other parent snuck the feeder bunny into the back room. After Mikey went to bed that night, the boa ate. Worked really well and Mikey was never the wiser about that snake's dinner habits.

Jo & Mike - Black Ops Bunny Operations our specialty! :D

MeMe if we are going to gab rats in PM, "someone" needs to clean out her PM box so "someone" can get incoming messages LOL.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daaangconcepts

WooHoo!! Go Rattie, its your birthday! :carrot:

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Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1399. (bad century for rats)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

MeMe if we are going to gab rats in PM, "someone" needs to clean out her PM box so "someone" can get incoming messages LOL.

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my box is empty!

sorry :giggle:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jahbeard

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1399. (bad century for rats)

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh great now it's empty MeMe! I'm old, I can't remember what I was going to PM you now!!!! :(

So I just took them all out to clean the tub and I finally got a correct count on the pups!

there are a lucky 13!!! :carrot:

They are pretty lucky though considering Momma was supposed to be Prince's dinnra!!!

They are all doing great! :aww:

thanks again for all the help!!!

:rockon:

Cute babies! And a real cute mama, too. :) Congrats to both you and her!

I'm expecting two litters from two 2nd time moms.

My sister is going to be 12 soon, and at first she thought I was mean for doing what I do. But, we had a long talk and she seems to understand and accept it, now. I know she's not all that young, but she and I are very close. It broke my heart when she thought I was being a heartless monster. I couldn't allow her to keep thinking that way, or else I'd have stopped breeding for the sake of keeping her close.