Quote Originally Posted by frankykeno View Post
Unless the rat is extremely shy or nervous, most of them will not reject or kill their own young just because you touched them or cleaned an enclosure. Wild animals may do this, domesticated rats - not so much.
Agreed. Rat moms have some of the strongest mothering instincts I've ever seen. Every time I've had to foster some to one mom or another, they willingly accept the new babies. It's to the point where I don't even try and scent them with mom's current litter, I just dump them in and she adds them to the pile.