# Mamma ate Skip!



## aliceinwonderland (Dec 17, 2013)

Dealing with a little bit of heartbreak this morning. I was checking to make sure Mamma and the babies had everything they needed a little while ago(because I'm going to be working another 21 hour shift today and won't be able to see them again until tomorrow morning) and I found the partial remains of Skip.

Just a little background here, on Wednesday I moved Mamma and the pups into a plastic bin so I could clean the cage because it was starting to smell pretty bad. I think the leading contributor to the smell was their little suspended boat that she had made a nest in. So I moved as much of the clean bedding as I could into a little box and put the pups in there, then in with Mamma with the bin next to a heater to keep them nice and warm. I know that stressed Mamma out but it really had to be done and from what I understood it would be alright. It was late when I put the bedding in to wash, so I put them back in the cage in the box which Mamma didn't seem keen on but she dealt with it. She was definitely agitated with the whole affair though. When I poked my hand in to greet her yesterday morning, she actually bit me for the first time. Not hard enough to draw blood but she was upset.

So yesterday everything was dried and the boat was put it back up on the third floor of the cage(I know babies shouldn't be up that high but there's only a small opening off in the corner to move up and down the levels so I figured it would be okay). I put the old bedding back in, put the pups in, added some extra Kleenex at the entrances facing out of the cage to keep them warm/give them privacy. But when I went to check in on them a few hours later, Mamma had moved everyone down to the bottom level and built a big Kleenex nest in the corner of the tape where the flexwatt tape was. I'm glad I checked on everyone when I did because the thermostat is set up to read the temperature a little higher in the tank and from where all the Kleenex was wadded up against it, that particular spot had been really hot and the pups were clearly starting to overheat! So I unplugged the heating element and took them out to hold them while everything cooled down. Tiny was breathing a little hard but once everyone cooled down they seemed fine. 

I put them back in the new nest rather than try to relocate them and upset Mamma any more and moved the thermostat reader thing directly over the flexwatt tape where the nest was and lowered it to 90F. I was a little worried that it was still too warm but knew it was too late to ask anyone on here so I figured it shouldn't be much different from holding them in my hand and I didn't want to put it too low and risk them getting a chill. 

This morning I could tell something was off because Mamma wouldn't leave the nest when she normally scurries up front and center when I open the door for treats. Even offering them to her in the nest couldn't coax her out. I finally had to just pick her up and remove her myself to get in and look at everyone. Tiny and Tip seem fine. They didn't feel nearly as hot as they had when I checked on them last night and seemed comfortable wile I held them. But then there was little Skip's upper body just laying there. He was still limp and it looked like everything was fairly fresh so I don't know how long he had been like that but I imagine it couldn't have been long. Could this be stress related from all the cleaning and bustling about or is 90F too hot for them and he overheated? I know they can't regulate their own body temperature but now I'm not sure what to do. I wish I had just left the cage alone until they were bigger.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Unless the ambient temperature in the room is really cold, you don't need direct heat on them and even then, direct heat on rats is a pretty iffy idea. If it is cold, I'd stick to using a space heater to get the ambient temperature up and maybe cover part of the cage with a towel. Skip could have overheated, but it's also possible that something else was wrong with him considering the number of pups lost so far. Don't beat yourself up about it, just try to give Mamma her space and let her do her thing as much as possible.


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