just had first litter?

OK my female rat gave birth to 11 healthy babies after having them only a day she tried to bury them...At first shes was caring for them even built a fort out of the bedding...so i clean her cage and she wants nothing to do with the babies now what should i do?

did you touch the babys with your hands??? if so say bye bye to them, first mistake i learned was never touch the babys with your hands cause then they dissapear one at a time!!

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Originally Posted by oceancube

did you touch the babys with your hands??? if so say bye bye to them, first mistake i learned was never touch the babys with your hands cause then they dissapear one at a time!!

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Yes,we touch them but not before she buried them...after she buried them we thought maybe we would make her a clean cage with less bedding...so how long before you can touch them

good news i went back in the rat room and she sleeping and feeding them right now SWEET i hope she take care of them i have no other momma rats soon again hopefully:gj:thanks

Unless the rat is extremely shy or nervous, most of them will not reject or kill their own young just because you touched them or cleaned an enclosure. Wild animals may do this, domesticated rats - not so much.

How warm is your room? She may have been burying them because it is too cold. Make sure you give them something warm to nest in.

I know they're pretty protective. So its probably just natural. Everytime i buy rat pups or pinkies the mother is frantically trying to hide her young. She probably just tried to hide them from you thinking you could be a predator.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Unless the rat is extremely shy or nervous, most of them will not reject or kill their own young just because you touched them or cleaned an enclosure. Wild animals may do this, domesticated rats - not so much.

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Agreed. Rat moms have some of the strongest mothering instincts I've ever seen. Every time I've had to foster some to one mom or another, they willingly accept the new babies. It's to the point where I don't even try and scent them with mom's current litter, I just dump them in and she adds them to the pile.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

How warm is your room? She may have been burying them because it is too cold. Make sure you give them something warm to nest in.

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it's like 65/70 in the rat room:)

Burying them is normal. Just leave her alone and she'll do a good job. Bugging her is more likely to stress her out. ;)

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Burying them is normal. Just leave her alone and she'll do a good job. Bugging her is more likely to stress her out. ;)

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Thanks but i don't stress her out I'm barely in the rat room i just went to check on her and she had buried her babies....NOW i know it's normal Thanks again....

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Originally Posted by oceancube

did you touch the babys with your hands??? if so say bye bye to them, first mistake i learned was never touch the babys with your hands cause then they dissapear one at a time!!

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I breed rats and touch all of the babies with my hands, and none of my females eat their babies.

I had a litter of rats birth out a couple months ago when my boa went off feed and I had to house the "dinner" until he was ready to eat. Well to our suprise "dinner" gave birth to 10 babies. Momma was very good with the babies, even after we handled them. I found her moving the babies around and burying them. She didn't eat any, but the other babies did end up killing a couple of the smaller babies in the litter. The burying behavior seemed pretty normal to me, and did not seem to harm the babies.