Help

[Steven Raymer]

one of my rats had 14 babies Thursday the 12 at midnight. I took 2 out for feeding my ball pythons and I came back in today to check in on them and 3 are died!!! I dont think she is feeding them. I took a couple and put them in with a another female rat the has done well with babies before to see if she with take them in...

What should I do?
Keep the babies with the mom.
Or give them all to the other female rat??

What are the chances they will survive?

[meowmeowkazoo]

If they have survived this long with her, then she is feeding them. You can tell by a little white band across their stomachs, called a milk band. They would have died by now if she wasn't feeding them, though.

The best thing to do is just let nature take its course, and not interfere. Interfering can stress out the mother and cause her to not care for the babies, or to eat them.

[youbeyouibei]

As has been said previously, if they made it this long then the female is surely feeding them. It could just be that it's too big a litter for her, especially if it's her first. She might have pushed those two out of the nest or otherwise neglected them while tending to the rest of the litter. I wouldn't sweat it, honestly. It sounds harsh and it sucks but that's nature and it may have been for the best if they were runts or ill or something else entirely going on. I'd say leave her alone as much as possible, especially if this is her first litter and just make sure she has food and water. Don't stress her and she should do fine once she gets the hang of things and figures out what the pink naked squeakers are doing hanging on to her, lol!

One of my females ate her entire first litter of seven and has since gone on to produce no less than twelve per litter, all of which she has reared just fine. Give her a chance and relax a bit and things will work out. Been there and done the stressing every detail part of things and it does no good. Best of luck to you and hope that helps without being too harsh.