# 4 Week Old Fosters



## Crickett (Feb 22, 2011)

How They Came To Us:
We (my husband and I) foster unwanted rats and re home them (after any rehabilitation if needed). We foster any rat who needs a home. So to get out the word i posted on CL about my husband and i taking unwanted rats for foster and re homing. I was contacted 2 days ago by a nice girl who needed somewhere to put her rats (we do NOT buy rats from CL ever)...Her story is a old one. She bought a female from a pet store...5 days later she had 17 babies. The girl was new to rats and didn't want this many. She asked us if we could take all 17. Sadly we do not have the room for this many (until we get out martins Rudd in a month). We agreed to take 4. Two girls and two boys. they are extremely tiny ; i found out she weaned them at 3 weeks so she could give them away faster. They eat and drink fine....any suggestions on how to help them grow ? I give a little FerretVite to each once a day. 
We are separating them in a week once they are 5 wks, they CAN NOT be adopted till at least 7 weeks old

Ok enough rambling .... Our newest Fosters..Titus and Ying (the boys) Ying is the black hoodie


































The Girls Una and Yang (Yang is the black berkie ...Titus is in the one beside her) 

























Una

































Random of Ying And Yang


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Poor little loves, losing their momma at 3 weeks of age!

I would suggest Ensure and baby cereal to supplement them until at least 5 weeks of age. If they were still 3 weeks I would've suggested soy human formula as a supplement to help them out over that rough transition period.

They are lovely.


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## Crickett (Feb 22, 2011)

yes they are oh so teeny, they look like baby mice to be honest...i read that large litters can have smaller babies than normal. Is that true or is it possible that they ARE 3 weeks. I let my calm girl Ifrit play with them (she loves any rat she meets) and they were running behind her and imitating anything she did and Yang looked like she was trying to nurse from Ifrit. (Ifrits only 11 weeks so it was a very failed attempt lol)

Ensure like the drink?? I have been giving a few lab blocks , warmed baby food and just a small dollop of fettet vite (only once a day for each baby)


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Crickett said:


> yes they are oh so teeny, they look like baby mice to be honest...i read that large litters can have smaller babies than normal. Is that true or is it possible that they ARE 3 weeks. I let my calm girl Ifrit play with them (she loves any rat she meets) and they were running behind her and imitating anything she did and Yang looked like she was trying to nurse from Ifrit. (Ifrits only 11 weeks so it was a very failed attempt lol)
> 
> Ensure like the drink?? I have been giving a few lab blocks , warmed baby food and just a small dollop of fettet vite (only once a day for each baby)


Yep Ensure the meal replacement  Strawberry then Vanilla are the only flavours my rat will touch.

they look more like 3.5 weekers to me than 4 weeks...but it can be hard to tell sometimes.


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## Crickett (Feb 22, 2011)

Oh ok i didnt know they could have that (my mum drinks it all the time and has a stock of it..the vanilla kind i think ) *time to go raid her stash* 

Awww  if they are only 3 week or so poor things , i feel bad that they were taken from mom so soon...They really love Ifrit, they will follow her till the end of time. and she cleans them like any good lady rat would. Maybe play time with her will help them learn to be ratties


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## Tink_JCF (Mar 31, 2011)

They are so adorable looking!


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## Murinae (Apr 8, 2011)

What about puppy Esbilac? 
I think squirrel rehabbers use this for unweaned babies.

Congrats on the cutie pies


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Murinae said:


> What about puppy Esbilac?
> I think squirrel rehabbers use this for unweaned babies.
> 
> Congrats on the cutie pies


its expensive stuff, but they really are beyond the needing milk/formula stage, they just need some supplementing to help them get over their rough start and grow up big and strong


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

Thank you for fostering these babies and not buying from Craigslist. What lucky, beautiful ratties.


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