# mom won't feed babies. . .



## Suzuks (Jun 25, 2008)

I found this posting on craigslist - is there any advice I can give this rat owner?

"my female rat just gave birth to 15 pups about 3 hours ago and now she wont care for them. does anyone know what i can do to nurse the babies! or to get the mom to feed them

any help would be great! "

Thanks!


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## zoe9 (Oct 3, 2007)

The first 3 replies in this thread might help .....

http://ratforum.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=12526.html


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

The owner needs to back off & leave Mom to do her job... if they are that specific that they are aware the delivery took place 3 hours ago they are most likely hovering & this will stress out Mom.

Plus, the nursing doesn't always take place immediately after delivery. Mom is tired, she just pushed 15 tiny wigglies out of her body in rapid succession. The babies are tired because they are just now learning how to breath on their own & adjust to environmental conditions that are no longer regulated by Mom's internal heating system.

The biggest tip is to leave Mom alone & only observe from a distance... if everything is proceeding normal (i.e. no screaming in pain or lots of blood loss) then leave Mom alone. Do a head count shortly after she finishes, remove any stillborn that may be present & peek in from time to time. I would estimate that you wait for about 6 hours after they are born to go in & check for milk bands.

If you aren't seeing milkbands within the first 12 to 24 hours then you have a serious situation & often the only intervention in cases like this is to have a second nursing Mother to take on the litter. Many times the only recourse is to contact the pet stores to see if they have a nursing rat in house. 

Attempting to hand feed 15 newborns can & will be a heart breaking experience. Often they don't survive & often the feeding schedule demands cannot not be accomplished by human hand. By the time you finish one round & get cleaned up it would be time to start another. 

Last year I took on the task of hand feeding a litter of 6 when Mom stopped lactating at around 10 to 12 days after the babies were born. It was a struggle to keep up with that. One was lost in the process at around 2 weeks of age. This person doesn't even have those 1 or 2 weeks head start.

**edited to add: I see that I replied to the suggested to read thread as well & there too I said to back off & leave Mom to do her job**


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## Suzuks (Jun 25, 2008)

thanks guys!

I emailed the person this information. . .hopefully it'll work out!


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