Sad Day

[BallPythonMan]

I bought rats about a month ago and i had the first female to have 11 babies and all are doing fine. My second female started giving birth yesterday and all of them were dead coming out. She prematurely had them bc they were all so small and one was just a head and thats all. She was still trying to get them to eat even though all were dead. So hopefully the next time she gets prego all will be fine.

[anendeloflorien]

I bought rats about a month ago and i had the first female to have 11 babies and all are doing fine. My second female started giving birth yesterday and all of them were dead coming out. She prematurely had them bc they were all so small and one was just a head and thats all. She was still trying to get them to eat even though all were dead. So hopefully the next time she gets prego all will be fine.

That's odd. I haven't had that happen before. How old are the rats? Typically you want to wait til they're at least 5 months old before breeding them. Breeding them younger can result in premature litters and sometimes the mother will eat the babies. What are you feeding them? Insufficient nutrition could also be a factor, I try to give my pregnant females some extra special food. Scrambled eggs seem to be one of their favorites.

[Beardedragon]

My bet with the head is that she ate the body. Happens very often. What bedding did you ahve them on?

[littleindiangirl]

It's not uncommon for a first time mother to have a rough birthing. It sounds like she had a very hard time, and was likely in extreme pain. There are many things that could have gone wrong.

Give her a long time to recover from the physcial trauma, change her bedding to get rid of afterbirth/fluids and give her an optimum diet in a low stress environment. Keep her healthy and let her recoup before you try to breed her again.

Good luck next time around.