3 weeks later---Babies---

[cane]

I purchased 2.4 rats 3 weeks ago and I already have babies 1 mom had 12 born 12/1/08 and the other young mom had 4 born 12/3. But question, the 2 mothers are together an the older mom keeps taking the babies for herself but the younger mom goes and tries to get them back. Should I be worried about this or should I just leave them alone? I just want the all to do well.

[dmaricle]

i have noticed in some of my colonies that they seem to keep spliting the babies up my rats seem to take turns caring for the babies, i hope this helps and good luck

[cane]

Just check on thim and apparently the young mom had 5 and 1 was dead. I some how missed it. Would it be ok to seperate the moms and give the young mom 6 babies

[Clear]

In my tubs that I keep multiple moms they swap babies a lot, as long as the babies are growing fine I leave them alone. Hope that helps.

[cane]

1 more dead I took the other mom out and left her with one baby and she left it alone and it died but the other mom is taking care of the other 15 fine.

[roosterman2173]

I have better luck when I put my prego girls in a tub by themselves.

[cane]

I had the 2 prego girls together. I will just leave them alone next time.

[cane]

3rd rat just had babies, I think about 10-12. In less than a month 2.4 adult rats have produced 27-29 babies. And the last female is pregnant and should blow next week. I have one rack with six bins that will be full in a couple of weeks. Now what, I guess I will have to build another rack.

[cane]

4 moms total of 35 babies born at the begining of the month. Today I have 25 left. 10 died or killed by the mother. some died young and some were 3 weeks or so old. Is this normal. Adult males are kept away from the babies and temps are kept in the low 70s.

[Clear]

I have only had one rat baby out of about 100 die from the mother. I keep 2-3 females together all the time.