Quote Originally Posted by littleindiangirl View Post
I prefer to put moms in separate nursing tubs. They dont have to compete with other mothers, deal with stress from one mother dominating all the babies, playing ring around the rosy as they steal babies from one another, dealing with too many babies at once, potential cannibalizing from mothers.. etc.

Wild rats prefer to all have a separate nesting chamber, only doing communal nursing when the population is high. I like to follow this lead. I have high numbers of rats, mothers bounce back quickly, babies are all fat and plump! I have complete control over the babies and know who any culprits are if I lose any pups to disease or cannibalism.
I'm with Connie on separating the moms. Unfortunately when the moms fight over the babies the babies don't always die and you might see live babies with holes in their bodies or missing feet and/or tails. It's very disturbing!