One of my pet shop rats gave birth.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

One of the Petland pre-impregnated rats gave birth. She had been getting attacked by a cagemate and i moved her to a new cage. She had 4 or 5 babies, one of them dead at birth.

She picked them up, cleaned them, and put them in a corner, and is now sitting on them, everything looks good, babies still squeaking 4 hours later!

[frankykeno]

Congrats Bryan. Small litter but a nice start. Just make sure the female has lots of water and food and she'll normally take care of the rest. Sometimes they won't leave their pinks at all for the first 24 hours or so but because they ingest the afterbirth they really don't need any other nutrients right off the bat (though always have lots of food available when nursing, especially a big litter).

~~Jo~~

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

16 ounces of water, and a big bowl of food (dog food, lab blocks, and a good mix of other foods)

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

And a second one now.... She was much bigger and had a much bigger litter I think? (my wife is the only one at home, so i thnk it was more)

Hopefully this one does a good job of mothering too.

[frankykeno]

They usually do Bryan. I've only had one female that was a total dud at mothering. Of the rest of the females, some are better at it but all are very competent. It's always a bit more of a hassle to get pre-preggie ones, not really a savings as they are often in poor condition so you lose more pinks at birth or just don't get as healthy a litter as you get when you raise up a younger female. Since the whole point is get healthy big rats to feed off, I'm trying to avoid the pet store preggies (well until I see one like Alita and can't help giving it a home lol).