# Apparently I Bought a Mama Rat...



## PsycheDelicMama (Oct 9, 2012)

I bought a new female rat around a month ago, give or take. All of my rats that Ive bought are from a pet store where they are sold as "Feeder Rats" (which I do not agree with) therefore I buy them as 'rescue rats' lol. Anyways I bought her out of a tank that had another rat in it and I didnt even think to check the gender of the other rats, my bad clearly. I got her home and housed her with my other two rats and everything was going good. But a week ago I started noticing that my new rat (Blossom) was getting chunky - she kept getting bigger and bigger. This morning I checked on them , gave them food and water you know the usual and I went on with my day. Then just 30 minutes ago I went to check on them and I turned on the light in my room and was greeted with little squeaks. And behold baby rats!  At least 8 of them. 
So my question is how do I proceed from here? Obviously the other rat needs to be separated from mama and babies but what other needs are the babies and mama going to have that I have to provide for? And lastly when the babies are weaned I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, I do NOT want to give them to a pet store in fear of them being sold a feeder rats.
Thanks in advance for any advice


----------



## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Try to get Mom and her babies into a tank or converted plastic tub, baby rats are known for getting out of wired cages and dying.

Depending on your girls you Can leave them together but considering they haven't been together that long I would separate them from Blossom. 

Make sure that she gets plenty of protein and fat, boiled or scrambled eggs, insects, nuts and seeds, and yogurt are your best options, along with her regular diet. Handle the babies every day if she lets you, this will get them used to humans.

Put ads up on craiglist, Hoobly, and other websites like that advertising them. Make it clear they are Pet Rats, charge a fee of $10 per rat, and Screen/interview the adopters. make sure they know about rats or if they don't and really want them as pets educate them by sending them to websites (Or here) to learn. Hang up fliers in your area, talk to friends and see if they will spread the word around by mouth. If it's only 8 you shouldn't have many issues finding homes for all of them, or the ones your not keeping.

Babies are weaned between 4 and 5 weeks.


----------



## BlackCat99 (Oct 9, 2012)

I agree with lighting especially if you don't know how your other rats will react to the babies, some females will steal the other moms babies and try to raise them themselves which leads to problems when they don't have milk to feed them, one of my females is really bad about that so I do not house her with moms about to birth. However other rats I have will just help the mom by sitting on the babies when she takes a break and help with cleaning. Good luck with your babies!


----------



## PsycheDelicMama (Oct 9, 2012)

Thanks for the quick responses both of you. 
Blossom and her babies are doing very well so far. Blossom in my opinion is being a good mom. Her babies all have very visible milk bands and she spends most of day w them except to eat/drink. I boiled her some eggs and gave her one today which she qucikly consumed. 
Bambi (my other female) is still in the cage with them and is doing fine with them, the most she does is look at the babies and then walks away. 

Thank you @lightning for the advice about posting them on Craigslist and making it out to be an adoption process with an adoption fee. I would love to keep them all but thats just not practical. I will also alert family and friends in hopes of obtaining potential adopters that way. 

As far as I know they will all be Siamese , considering the companion that she had when I bought her was also Siamese like her. Looking forward to some very pretty little rats


----------



## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

What type is she (you can post pictures). I know a lot about rat genetics and can tell you what you should expect in the litter.

If she is not Siamese you will most likely not get Siamese. Siamese is ch/ch (recessive). No Siamese is C/- (- can be any recessive gene or dominant gene). So you would have C/ch which are rats carrying the Siamese gene, but not Siamese. Now if she carried the Albino gene (C/c) you could end up with ch/c Which is Himalayan. (c/c is Albino) (there is also the cm/cm or Marten gene but it is only found in the UK and parts of Canada and Mexico at the time). Does that make sense?

You should expect some pretty babies, especially if you get albinos


----------



## PsycheDelicMama (Oct 9, 2012)

http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag98/PsycheDelicMama1991/IMAG0751_zpsfe731f1f.jpg That's Blossom , she also has a patch of color that is the same color that is on her nose but it goes down her lower back to her tail. That's the best picture I could get because If I walk any closer to the cage she won't hold still lol


----------



## sherriwat (Oct 7, 2012)

ahh the surprise of babies. i remeber my morning it was a ahh s*** morning as well as a im totally absolutelyin love with these pink hairless little things  mine are only about a week old and oh the things iv taught my children and the experience for them imagine 5 years old and you have baby rats. mmmm good times and hopefullymore to come


best of luck hun

post pics of babies when you can please


----------



## PsycheDelicMama (Oct 9, 2012)

@abetting it for sure was an oh s*** night for me too haha! But I am in love with them too, such little cuties. I have a 3 1/2 year old and he is INFATUATED with them , he keeps asking to see them and I have to tell him that the babies need to sleep and be with their mama lol It is such an amazing learning experience for the kiddos  http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag98/PsycheDelicMama1991/IMAG0749_zpsf535f62a.jpg there's the link to the pic  Again Thanks for the feedback


----------



## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

She's a hymalayin. Wow. You will expect 50% Hymalayin (ch/c) and 50% Siamese (ch/ch). the Siamese pups will look golden as pups, and the Hymalayins will look like albinos or pure white. Siameses get their points around 3 and 4 weeks, Himalayins around 3 to 6 weeks.

They all look very healthy


----------



## PsycheDelicMama (Oct 9, 2012)

Hi everyone I just wanted to put an update picture up of the babies http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag98/PsycheDelicMama1991/IMAG0773_zps2c7af6d8.jpg . There it is  The babies and Mama are doing very well. The babies are obviously getting very fuzzy very fast and I expect their eyes will be opening any day now that they are two weeks old now. I haven't found any takers from friends and family but I will be keeping a few of the girls and posting the rest on Craigslist for potential adopters. I did my best to sex them and from my best guess there are 4 boys and 4 girls. Again thank you for the promote answers in the beginning


----------



## YellowSpork (Jul 7, 2012)

Where are you located in the midwest? I have a friend who has rats in Minnesota (in a suburb of the twin cities) and I could talk to her about possibly getting a girl, though no promises. Her cage is certainly big enough though.


----------



## LaTortue (Oct 17, 2012)

Because of the lighting in the pic I can't say for certain whether she is a siamese or a himilayan. Is her fur more of a cream color or is it true white? Siamese will have the cream coat, himis the white. I <3 colorpoints. It is definitely a good idea to start looking for good homes now. Along with CL (where, as you know, you have to be extremely cautious), I'd also post in the adoption section of this forum as well as any other rat/small animal forums you belong to and be sure to include lots of pics! Adopting to people from forums like this tends to be safer, they're much more likely to provide a good home and be educated about rats, although you obviously can't just assume this, questions still need to be asked and taking a look at that person's posting history will give you a pretty good idea of what kind of owner they are.


----------

