# Sneaking to be together.



## RattyShay (Jun 11, 2012)

This could make a very long thread so I will try to keep this brief. My rat had suprise babies last night and I had to do some shuffling to seperate my two girls from each other. i have the Petco Rat Manor and i placed a small cutting board over the hole to the bottom two lvls. The mom and babies are in the bottom and the other is in the top. Today I walked into the room and saw them all in the same area. Gerbil was avoiding the nesting box with the babies and was more interested in chilling by the climbing blocks. She did go to the nesting box, smelled it and walked away. And Bownie just doesnt seem to care. At one point, they were both snuggling on top of the nexting box. Is it possible that I can keep them together If i give them enough space? I had Gerbils favorite snuggle spot on the top floor and the babies are still on the bottom. I guess Im wondering if It would do more harm than good to keep them seperate when they dont seem to mind each others company. When I left Gerbil was in her snuggle spot and mom and babies were in the nesting box. 

P.S. If you didnt know, Gerbil is the name of my rat... not an actual Gerbil... lol


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## EleashaC (Jan 30, 2012)

I had a similar problem when one of mine had surprise babies-- her sister (who had ALSO just had surprise babies, two weeks before, ARGH!) insisted on breaking into the new mum's cage, crawling into the nesting box, and nursing the babies. I absolutely couldn't keep her out. In that case, it didn't turn out to be a problem-- the new mum didn't seem to mind her sister being with the babies, and the babies got a little extra milk, so everything was cool. I don't know how it might turn out with another female who hasn't recently had babies... my first reaction would be to say that, if everyone's getting along, it won't be a problem. On the other hand, if an issue does arrive, you may not notice in time to keep the babies safe. Keep an eye on their behaviour, most definitely, and separate at the first sign of trouble. There have been reports of multiple rat ladies raising a litter, so a happy multi-mother relationship isn't unprecedented. Some new mother rats also just like having companionship, too.


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