# first time mom ignoring babies?



## katiecanflyyy (May 23, 2013)

We ended up with a pair of wrongly sexed rats and now just an hour ago ruby gave birth. We already removed the male when we realized what had happened. We ended up with 9 pinkies and 3 still born. She doesn't seem to be paying them much attention though. We're about an hour out and I haven't seen a milk band yet. She isn't sitting on them either. We ended up putting a heating pad under the tank near the nest to keep them a little warmer. I just don't know what to do. She didn't even put them in a pile herself I had to moved the scattered babies in a pile for her. Shes the sweetest rat and we have a great bond so she let me touch them. I just want to make sure they're going to be okay.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

She may just be rejecting them--this happens with some moms. If they never get milk from her it's almost impossible to hand raise them as they don't have the enzymes necessary to digest anything--they can only get that from mom. If she does feed them eventually but then starts to ignore them you might want to consider hand-raising them, though from anything under two weeks this can be very challenging. There isn't much you can do to make mom take care of them--you just have to wait and see what happens at this point.


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