Sunday night, my nursing rat mother started wheezing horribly. She was gasping for air within a few hours, and there was blood coming up from out of her throat. She was also frantically wiping her face with her hands, almost like she was choking.

I do not know what could have done this. I know she was kept by a girl for a few years before I got her last week. The girl used cedar shavings, which I know are volatile for ratties. I wonder if this played a part? The other female rat I got from the same girl, is wheezy.
I had to euthanize the mama rat. I don't know if there as anything that could have been done, but she was bleeding like that and shaking, and I just had to. I used the gas method and then put her body in the freezer. There's a local vet who can do an autopsy for me; I want to know what happened.

The 7 babies are now still with me, and they're actually doing pretty good. They were just barely past the stage where they opened their eyes, and all of them can now drink water out of a shallow dish (a tupperware lid.)
I took the regular rat food blocks that I feed my adults, and moistened them in water so they would be easier for the little guys to eat. I also gave them some of the puffy cereal-type puffs from the rat food mix and they are eating them.
I was going to just wait and see how they did eating the food before going out to buy any kind of formula, but they seem to be fine.
Here are a few pics of them.



Here's the little gray one; seems to be doing the best out of the group.