Mama's Rat's second litter

[Epona142]

My favorite rat, aptly named Mama rat, has dropped her second litter! Her first litter was 13 pups, and her second 12! It was a stroke of goodluck that lead me to her at that petstore I say!
She never shows until the very last day, and almost always beats me having them before I get her maternaty home setup. As her status as favorite rat, she gets to live in a wire cage in my room, instead of a maternaty tub like the rest of the rats.

For the rat-color experts, what pattern is Mama rat? I've always thought Husky with a blaze, but I may be wrong.

Sorry for the low qaulity pictures.

Thanks for looking!

[SatanicIntention]

PLEASE get her and those babies into a solid walled cage. The babies will get stuck in the bars and could possibly get killed if she stepped on one wrong. What bedding are you using? I'd really suggest getting some aspen as paper towels and hay won't soak up a whole lot.

I also would not breed that female, especially if you got her at a petstore(since she has unknown genetics) because she could be carrying megacolon that could pass onto her babies. Megacolon is not something to play around with. She is a black(although rusting) wedge-blazed variegated.

I have a few rats that look like that; beige blazed capped odd-eye, beige blazed capped, etc., but I won't ever breed them as I don't know their genetics. High-whites are very risky to introduce to a colony, especially if you're only feeding snakes with them.

www.ratguide.com and look up megacolon

[Epona142]

I appreciate and thank you for your concern and advice!
The wire sits nearly flush the the walls, I do notice one youngster managed to have his body a little bit out, but it does not have enough leeway to get anything more in there. I've used this cage for many many years.
There IS aspen underneath the hay and papertowels. I have bred many many rats, though I've just started doing it again recently, and I certainly wouldn't house them on just hay!
As for getting my rats at the petstore, sometimes you have no other option! There are no rat breeders near me, in fact the nearest petstore is 45 miles! I do the best I can.
As for megacolon, I see what you're saying. None of her pups have been introduced into the small colony I have, they are all euthed and frozen as fuzzies for my tegu.
Thank you again for your advice, I will look more into what you've said!

[Jonny2184]

I love the pictures.

I used to hate rats and mice but now since I've kept one rat as I pet she is kinda growing on me. Her name is Doris and she had one litter of 14 like 4 months ago. I want to breed her again but It's hard getting an old enough male for her.

Good luck with the babies. Lookin good!

[Epona142]

Thank you for your kind words.

I am always been very fond of rats, dating way back when to my very first rat, a black rat named Socks! After that I bred show rats for some time, even went to a few shows and won a few ribbons! It was great! After I moved, it was a long time before I got back into reptiles, and from there, back into rats!

I decided to err on the side of caution, and attached a one and a half inch smooth aluminum border around the bottom the the wire cage, to prevent any possible mishaps. I am a firm believer that wire cages are far healthier for rats, and more enjoyable too, as they can climb the bars!

Better safe than sorry, I always say!

[SatanicIntention]

Oh yes, I agree on the wire cages for rats too. They need alot of ventilation. But moms with babies, I put in large Kritter Keepers or 5-10gallon tanks until they are about 2-3 weeks old. THEN, they get put into a 2 story small wire cage so they can learn the "climbing" thing. And mom can get away from the leeches.

I've just seen too many babies get their heads stuck and either get their necks broken by mom stepping on them wrong or them suffocating. Just not a good end either way, and I like to try to prevent that whenever possible.

[Flagg]

Until just recently I have used a Superpet "my first home for rats" as a nursery cage, and it works fine.

It's a wire cage with 1/2" bar spacing, about 24x14x14 I think on the dimensions.

It has a very deep pan and then the bars start from the top of the pan, about 3" or more above the floor of the cage.

By the time the babies are old enough to reach above the pan, they are far too big to fit through the bars.

I had to stop using it with my current nursing mother because she chewed an escape hole through the pan. My rats have birthed and raised countless litters in this cage and for some reason this one female was determined to chew an escape hole.

She and her litter are now housed in a 20 gal long tank and it sucks. A pain to get into, and it reeks very fast whereas the wire cage never smelled that bad. I plan on moving the female and the litter into a big wire cage with the other females once the litter has opened their eyes.

[SatanicIntention]

I didn't mean the super pet cages, I've used the tiny, two-level red-bottomed ones for dwarves and their litters. I'm just talking about the wire cages where the wire and bottom of the pan meet, like the cages found at Petsmart(metal pan, white painted wire). Those can be dangerous when used with mothers and their babies under 2 weeks old. Just first hand experience, is all...

[Epona142]

Thanks again to everyone!
As mentioned before, I attached smooth aluminum around the bottom of the cage, and triple-checked it! No little youngster is going to get their little body parts stuck now! Better safe than sorry, I always say!
Pups are all doing great, but you can tell poor momma would rather come out and be with me than sit on those teat leeches! All well, she's only got until they're large fuzzies and then she's free again! She will of course have a break before going back in with daddy rat and the other girls.

[frankykeno]

It is amazing how they can be so dedicated to their litter but you can tell they get pretty sick of the experience pretty quickly LOL. Poor things can't grab a bite to eat, a sip or water or take a dump in piece without the little darlings hollering for mamma and following her everywhere.