Rat? Help..

[ssscales]

I just cleaned out my rat tubs and final count of those (now pups) are 8, those things sure do grow fast! Just last week they were small/tiny pinks and now pups!

Problem is, I notice since cleaning and replacing the old nest box, the mother keeps kicking out two of the pups! I used latex gloves in handling the pups! I've put back these two pups 2X's and she keeps picking them up and kicking them out!

What should I do, if anything?

[JLC]

Could you try fostering them with another mom? Or feed them off if you have any snakes taking ratties that size.


Not that I'm the least bit experienced with raising rats...those thoughts just come to mind after the multitude of rat-threads I've read here! LOL

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I just cleaned out my rat tubs and final count of those (now pups) are 8, those things sure do grow fast! Just last week they were small/tiny pinks and now pups!

Problem is, I notice since cleaning and replacing the old nest box, the mother keeps kicking out two of the pups! I used latex gloves in handling the pups! I've put back these two pups 2X's and she keeps picking them up and kicking them out!

What should I do, if anything?

Something is going on here. I have had at least 50 litters now, and Ive never had a single mother reject a baby, even if it was someone else's. I would take those 2 out, and 2 more out, put them in a small container together for 30 minutes, and then put them all 4 back in. At this point they should all smell generally the same.

It is odd for a good mother to reject babies, especially this late at their age. Are they the biggest of the babies? Maybe she is trying to let the others have their fair share of the milk

At that size it takes more than a day of neglect to cause them harm (in my experience). You could wait a few hours to see if she lets them back in.

[ssscales]

Thanks for the advise, thankfully it wasn't needed. This morning I checked on them and they were all cuddled under her.

Not sure why she was kicking them out yesterday, but whatever caused it seems to have fixed itself overnight. Plus I think I got another litter last night from another one of my girls. Not 100% sure yet, but I see her huddled over something pink/reddish that looks like babies. I'll leave them alone and check back on them when I get home from work!

I definitely am taken to breeding my own rats, to an extent at least. I don't see myself breeding enough to support my snakes. I still favor the convenience of F/T in a freezer Vs breeding my own feeders. But, then again who knows! As I have more BP's I may house more rats. I think in order for me to keep a larger colony I would house them away from the house or if I had a facility specific to my snakes and a room just for feeders.

The 2.3 have done great so far! I spent about $50.00 total for housing, food and rats about 6 weeks ago and have already gotten possibly 2 litters and a 3rd on the way! In 2-3 months they should pay for themselves!

[wolfy-hound]

Yay!! It would only take between 25-40 rats to pay for themselves at normal prices bought locally. Mine have saved me about $180 so far. And that is not counting today, which is a TOTALLY my own bred rats feeding day! Whoo-hooo. And what I LOVE about breeding my own is that the rats are soo fat and healthy. The store bought ones are ust puny in comparison. I have even started buying extra when I have to buy, so I can fatten them up for a week. For the savings in cost you can sometimes get them almsot a entire size bigger in just a week or so, and if you buy 50lb bags of rat chow and suppliment with whatever you like, they grow tremedously fast, and the cost of the food is MORE than offset by the cost of the larger size of rodent.
As for pushing the babies out? I have several that will scatter larger litters to feed them. I am always finding one or two tucked away somewhere weird, but she will shift them around later. I haven't had any non-mommy raised ones yet. No real problems, except I did have one HUGE batch of about 16 babies, where two pinkies died. They were tiny compared to the others though, and I assume they were just weak runts.
I love raiseing my own rats, it takes some upkeep to clean out the bins, but with WildBill's bins, that is not really a huge chore, and I can keep a BUNCH of rats in a small space.
Wolfy (Grinning at her rats)
p.s. I also have a huge tank on my kitchen tabel with 4 hairless rats that my hairless pair gave me. All females, I also have the 2 boys, but they are not in with their sisters. The hairless ones did well, mommy fed them fine, although the litter was small. The mommy is going to a friend that wants a hairless, and probaly one or both boys as well.

[frankykeno]

Glad to hear the female is doing fine with her pups Gerry. They will seperate their litters, espeically bigger litters a lot. Seems to be their way to make sure all pups are getting a chance at the teats (normally 12). When I first started breeding rats I would run to move the babies back until I figured out the mother knew best how to manage her litter. Turns out Emily did the same and we had a good laugh over our trying to help a female rat who was likely pretty ticked off with our stupid human interference LOL.

If your rats are used to you there's no need to worry about your scent on the young ones. Use the gloves if you like but it's not the norm for a female rat to reject her young ones because of human scent on them. I check every one of my pinks the day they are born to make sure all are lively and have visual milkbands and I've yet to have a female reject her young. Actually just did the first check of a new litter....Midnite popped out 14 live young early this morning (her first litter) and they are all squeaking madly and have tummies full of milk. Now if only her breeding buddy Alita would drop her litter....she's so huge I think she's gonna explode LOL

[JLC]

... I check every one of my pinks the day they are born to make sure all are lively and have visual milkbands ...

What are "visual milkbands?"

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

What are "visual milkbands?"

Those kick ass! Its a whitish/opaque "band" across the babies stomach. You can literally see through their skin and tell that they have milk in them.

That is probably the most useful piece of advice Ive ever gotten, to check for milk bands. It's how I know a mother is being a mother, especially when they give birth unexpectedly in the breeder rack and i wonder if anyone is taking care of them.

[frankykeno]

What are "visual milkbands?"

As Bryan said it's obvious white band (sort of almost like a band/lump) that you can clearly see through the skin of a pinkie rat or mouse that indicates it's getting milk from momma. Once they get a bit bigger you can't see it anymore but I like to check each newborn rat within the first 12 hours to make sure I'm seeing milkbands.

Just on a side note, if you are buying pinks to feed to your snakes and can check them (like the ones I buy for Beth's milksnake), pick the ones with milkbands...why not get that bit of extra calcium for your snake.

If I can ever find the digital camera (gawd knows where I packed it) I'll have to take a pic of a pinkie with and without a milkband to show the difference.

[JLC]

I love learning new stuff. Someday I'm gonna need this info! Thanks Bryan and Jo!