i got a naked female...she came with pinks. help

[ADEE]

ok, so i went and picked out a beautiful nice female naked rat.. when they lifed the hide she was in below her were five perfect little pinks. they asked if i still wanted her and that they could take her babys away and feed them if i didnt want them.. of course i told them not to be rediculous and lifted mommy and all her babys into our travel cage. they are all home now and shes actually nursing them wonderfully. on the way home i did pick up puppy milk and a little bottle in the event i notice her babys not eating. my question now is what should i feed her in addition to her mazuri blocks? i want to make sure she has enough nutrients to feed herself and her five pinks. for the record we do plan to keep all babys. if they turn out to be males (which i dont know yet cause i tried to handle them as little as possible) we will have them neutered so they can at least live with mommy. until they can get fixed we will have them seperated when its nessesary to wean them. shes a bit dirty from being housed in a not so clean enclosure with her and a group of other males (as well as a few stray females) but i was scared to clean her up in fear that i couldnt because of her babys.. so whats suggested here? im housing her on shredded phone book pages and a couple articles of clothing my children donated to her. right now shes in a 20gal long tank with a screen lid. half of it is covered with a towel to make sure its dark and comforting.. any suggestions? should i make any changes? here are some pics of her.. i havnt decided for sure on a name but im thinking lexus and naming her babys other types of cars..





i was also thinking of naming her something like "perfect" or "beautiful" in another language if i could figure it out... thanks so much everyone!!!!

[ADEE]

ive cleaned up her face and weighed everyone.. shes 189grams, babys are 7g (x3) and 6g (x2) they all have nice milk bands and momma has actually eaten some of her egg and dragged a peice of lab block back to the nest. last time i checked on them momma was bringing some shreded paper back to the nest.

heres one of the babys... i think this one is a male, what does everyone else think? i would like to keep some of her babys but i only plan to keep the girls, otherwise i would have to have them neutered or keep another cage and i woudl really like to have just one. right now i have one with six girls, one with a sick girl (the new girl isnt doing well still! loosing weight but we got her to drink some puppy milk tonight) and momma and all her babys in another enclosure. i know it will be sometime before momma can live with her sisters and i can tollerate having two cages for awhile but three is a bit much IMO. so far the little momma is doing a swell job. im very pleased.

[SatanicIntention]

Quarantining is VERY important when bringing in new rats from outside. Your current rats could get extremely sick(read up on SDA and Sendai, as well as other contagious viruses/bacteria).

If you can get some Hill's Prescription diet a/d for the hairless girl, that would be the best for her. Lots of calories and energy. That's a good sign that they have milk bands, but they may need supplementing when they are a bit older(2 weeks). That female looks VERY young and should have never been bred. It's likely she's also pregnant again if she was in with other males when she had her babies. They go into heat again almost immediately after giving birth, and being pregnant while trying to raise a litter, AND being hairless, sure doesn't give you a good start in life.

Oh, and kitten formula is probably the best for them and the closest to their mother's milk. You can make the nekkid girl some pasta with butter, oatmeal w/soy milk, soy milk plain, things like that. No lactose though, unless it's a bit of yogurt here and there.

Hope this helps And please quarantine whenever you get new rats. Minimum 30 days at a separate location.

[ADEE]

thanks for your suggestions.. shes away from the other rats but not in a seperate location. she is very young and im certain her babys cant be more than a day old so what are the real chances of her being pregnant again already? guess time will determine that for sure. shes a double rex from what ive been told by other websites (shes got fuz on her face and body too) ill keep a close eye on her and those babys though. i didnt breed her to begin with so i cant help that she was housed with other males.. i just wanted to save her and her precious little babys.. i know their fate is typically set in stone but not hers.

[frankykeno]

Poor little momma. I agree with Becky that this little female was far too young to be bred but that's not your fault. I wouldn't continue however to bring home rats from a supplier that allows this to happen as it's a good indicator that they aren't providing very good care if they can't even seperate males from females.

Keep her enclosure warm and draft free. She's hairless so there's issues there about keeping warm and so forth. Feed her well as Becky's suggested and you might even offer her tiny bits of diced up, lightly cooked chicken hearts for a treat and a good boost of nutrients. A bit of uncooked spinach is a good green for them and a source of iron.

I'd start making plans for the male offspring as far as finding pet homes for them. That way once they are ready to wean you will hopefully have found good homes for them.

[ADEE]

i have already started putting the word out for the boys.. i actually got this girl at a different place then i had ever used before. and when i saw her i couldnt resist. our family is complete... we dont plan to add any more critters to the family, no adoptions or otherwise either. im not sure how many are males/females but if i cant find them homes with people i know i do have a petstore thats always looking for hairless. so we will see what happens with them.

[Ginevive]

Becky and Jo had some excellent advice. I know from a friend who tried breeding hairless that it can go south fast. She had one mom that was seemingly fine and one day she just came in and all of the babies were dead. I personally don't have a place for hairlesses in my house because I want the strongest genetics I can get; i am even weeding out my higher whites to focus on Selfs and berks. But it seems as thogh you've bought her as a pet; the main thing now is going to be to get her comfortable and healthy for the time that her pups are with her and afterwards. I personally probably would have leaned toward feeding the pups off; she would then be able to get her strength up and grow more.. but that is just my opinion. I would avoid buying from that seller in the future though because it is sickening that this poor young thing had to be bred so little and I would not want to give money to the person who let this happen. They can get preggo right after giving birth and if she was in with males.. yikes it is a possibility.
I just wish you luck in what ever you plan to do with her. At any rate, she is in a safer place with you than she was.

[Flagg]

If she's a double rex, the offspring won't be double rex hairless unless the father was at least a rex. Then you will have 1/2 double rex 1/2 rex. If the father was a double rex then all double rex. If the father was normal then all rex (curly fur).

[ADEE]

they were all double rex. everyone in the tank was hairless (dr) ill be sure to keep an eye on her.. ive got a soft spot for babies staying with thier mommys, guess its the mother in me

[Ginevive]

I just hope that this is all not too much for her, and that she does not die younger than needed because of early strain on her body.