# separating



## melon (Mar 27, 2008)

i know people say to separate before 5 weeks but i had my babies at the vet who has suggested to leave them until just before the 6 week mark as apparently they can`t breed until then anyway, is this true??

the reason she suggested this is that the babies are veryyyyy small, more like the size of gerbil babies at that age rather than rat babies, so she thought that giving them an extra week may be the best option as, even though they are eating fine, they may be too small to survive and it`s best not to take the chance. i just wanted to know what you guys thought of this??

i`ll probably separate tomorrow though when one litter will be 5 weeks and the other 5.5 weeks, i`m just extra paranoid since they are so small and thin :?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Are they all still nursing a lot? This is the most important thing of all. If they are that far behind developmentally it might be fine to leave them until 5.5 weeks or so.

If they arent nursing much anymore, separating won't hurt them just supplement them with baby food, baby cereal, ensure etc


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## melon (Mar 27, 2008)

i`m not sure if they are nursing a lot, they do it in the little house so i can`t see in to tell.

i think i may just separate them tomorrow and try them with the baby food though, there`s no way i could cope with any accidents. thanks for the advice!


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## Buggzter (Feb 13, 2008)

Boiled/scrambled egg, chicken, and bones are YOUR FRIEND!!!! Feed lots to the little ones to get them up to good size, and keep with momma til around 5.5 weeks.

No matter HOW old an animal is, if it's too small for sexual maturity there will be no babies. It's hard to tell for rats what size that will be, so just give them those few extra days - and let the girls all be with momma as long as you can. Maybe wait until they are around the "normal" size of a 5 week old rat? Boys, just keep up the extra protein until they are "normal" sized for their age, too. And make sure momma gets TONS of extra protein since she needs it to make the milk. And add TONS of veggies for them to eat for the nutrition. Good luck, and let us know how things go!


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## melon (Mar 27, 2008)

well i will be separating them very shortyl, i have just spent ages cleaning and changing round the big cage for the girls. 

i`m really paranoid about it to be honest, i have 2 14 week old girls who are going to have to share a cage with the girls, they get on fine with the babies, just the mommies seem to like to attack these girls during playtime although i think this is more of a dominance thing since there`s lots of squealing and pinning but absolutely no injuries any of the times they`ve met.

the cage is now spotless with all new toys, houses, hammocks etc and i`ll be keeping a very close eye on everyone!

the babies seem to be doing well, some of them look like little sumo wrestlers haha some are still quite small but as they`re eating fine i`m not really worried (more worried about several pregnant rats if i don`t separate them!) 

just out fo interest, everyday i`m putting a rabbit bowl full of nuggets into the cage with all the bubs an mommies, they also get some cereal and veggies and within an hour all this is gone, are they eating too much or is this normal for having so many babies??


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## Buggzter (Feb 13, 2008)

Babies like to eat alot to grow, and mine ate TONS of food every day. I think I put enough in as if all were adult rats, and all the food got eaten every day... Maybe with mine it was also that they are growing rappidly still, but... It's just a baby thing.


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## melon (Mar 27, 2008)

ah that`s cool, i think mine may be eating a bit too much though, when i think about it the amount of food i`m putting in the cage now would have normally lasted the mommies a good few days before the babies were born :? 

should be easier to judge once they`re fully separated since there`s 21 in the same cage right now hah i put nesta in the cage with my other 2 girls and so far they`re just sniffing and checking each other out but no fighting, gonna leave her for a while and then put monty in and give all the older girls some time before putting the bubs in later tonight 

edit - ignore what i said about them eating too much lol i mis-read what you wrote, sorry! that`s a relief to know cause i was worried since some were getting tubby lol


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## melon (Mar 27, 2008)

well they`ve all been separated and the girls introduced to their new cage complete with new friends and i`m pleased to say everything went really well 

i`ve been sitting getting grey hair by the second worrying about monty ripping chunks out of the other 2 girls (even had the vet on speed dial lol) but monty wasn`t even interested in more than a little pinning down then she got bored......what i never expected though, was for the babies to try their luck at fightign beans haha she just runs from them it`s so cute!!

though i feel really bad, there`s 2 boys staring at me as i type this with their huge black eyes and i feel as though they`re missing their mommy  i feel like i just orphaned 10 babies haha


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