Worst Litter Ever

[frankykeno]

Well folks, went against my usual rule of thumb about buying obviously pregnant female breeder rats from my local pet store....here's the result and I am kicking myself.

I was in our fav pet store the other week, checking out a tank of huge male rats with an eye for BCI feeding potential. Well a big husky marked one stood up and to my surprise not only doesn't it have the standard male equipment but it's hugely pregnant! Called an employee over and decided to purchase the female against my better judgement. Hey I like a bargain and I'm thinking...she's ready to drop...I get an almost free litter and get the poor thing out of the male cage since somebody obviously messed up here (this pet store is usually very good at sexing and doesn't leave adult rats of opposite sex together).

What a mess! The poor female did in fact deliver 2 days later....nearly bleed out on me, was so stressed and sick she couldn't care for her litter.....out of 12 born only 9 survived. I had to quickly switch some other nursing females around to free up my albino female, Snowball, whose an experienced mother plus has fostered pinks for me before with no problems.

Snow has taken on the litter (which were pretty puny at birth) and has culled out 3 more...so I'm down to 6 pinks. The original female has survived but I was shocked at how thin she was once she dropped the litter and I'm not sure if the bad delivery combined with stress will still kill her.

So moral of the story for me....follow my usual procedures, stick with my instincts about buying healthy unbred females and building them up a bit prior to breeding (or just raise my own future breeders)....healthier females make for healthier litters and that's just smarter for me financially plus way less stress and work for me. I k now they are "only" rats but I hate to lose any of them needlessly. Up until now I've only lost 1 pink out of 78 born so it's been a frustrating experience and a bit of a waste of resources.


~~Jo~~

[cassandra]

/comfort and hugs

On the bright, while she is just a rat, you should take comfort that you have given her the best chance you can at surviving, much better than she would have had if she had dropped the litter in a cage full of males at the pet store.

[recycling goddess]

jo,

what a kind and generous heart you have. please don't dimish that part of this! that poor little girl would have died in the petstore... you have saved her life. even if she never breeds again and is only fattened up for feeding... it's a better way to go than bleeding to death in a pit of males with no one caring if she lived or died.

extra karma points for you from the rattie gods!!!

[frankykeno]

Aww thank you, what lovely comments! I do try to be realistic about the rats and why I raise them but as much as my head is involved, so is my heart...so it's always a balance.

I did worry that she would not do well in that cage of such big males and I doubt with that delivery, either her or any of her pinks would have made it. I just hate any animal dying wastefully and needlessly, whether it's a pet or a animal meant for food so I figured bring her home and see how it goes.

Next time though, I may just draw it to the employees attention as they have their own rat colony and as I said, are normally fantastic at not allowing this to happen. Then they can deal with it and I don't have to run about switching up litters to find the best female to foster and such. Guess I'm spoiled as my females do so well I'm unused to difficulties or lost pinks/breeder females.

Oh btw her name's Alita and yes I do name my breeding colony LOL. Their offspring are referred to generically as "breakfast, lunch and dinner" (the runts of any litters being nicnamed "snackfood") but I do like naming my breeders.


~~Jo~~

[recycling goddess]

YOU ARE GRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!!!!!


(just had to say it again)

[cassandra]

snackfood....LOL!

[frankykeno]

Well on the up side, just this minute went to check on another breeding female who was due to deliver her first litter today or tomorrow and look what I found!

This is Flash giving birth to her first litter with a healthy female rat's usual no fuss, no muss and no mess way of doing things. She's still busy back there so I'll peek in later and see what the full count ended up being. Wow what a difference - this is what I'm used to seeing so explains my shock when Alita delivered with so much difficulty!



~~Jo~~

[recycling goddess]

i had an auntie named alita... haven't heard that name since.

glad you are having a good litter this time jo... she looks so intent delivering her pups...

[frankykeno]

My friend's daughter was with me when I got her so I let her name the new female. She picked the name Alita...apparently she just loves this name and uses it for all her dolls and such (she's 6)...no one knows why though as she has no friend or relative with that name.

I just hope Flash's young don't have their mother's ways. She's named Flash for being the fastest, wiggliest, hardest to hold rat I've ever met! Nice tempered but man...that's one fast female! LOL

~~Jo~~

[recycling goddess]

be sure to keep us posted on how many she births