# Rat is TOO good of a mother?



## CindrDoLLy (Oct 3, 2012)

I imagine I'll be posting in this forum a lot since I've never had a pregnant rat or a rat with babies before so it's all new territory for me.

My rat Lulu gave birth to some babies early this afternoon, I don't know how many yet as they're under cover for the time being. I want to leave her with them for 24 hours before messing with them too much anyway.

That being said, she's keeping the babies in half of a critter space pod I left in there for her for privacy, and she hasn't come out hardly at all since the birth.

I managed to feed her some deli turkey through one of the slots where the other half of the space pod would normally attach. I'm assuming she ate it....then about an hour later, I put some sliced carrot and blueberry in her food dish alongside the Oxbow Mouse and Young Rat pellets that have been sitting there untouched all day. She came out of the pod to investigate the intruder, walked over to the food dish, chewed on a piece of carrot for a few seconds, then went back inside the pod. It's been 9 hours and she has been with the babies all day, as far as I know she hasn't eaten anything except the bit of deli turkey and a small piece of carrot, and she hasn't had any water. I admire her loyalty but I'm worried she's being too good of a mom and neglecting her own needs. 

Is it normal for new moms to forget to eat and drink on the first day they have babies? I realize she is probably tired herself and has been sleeping a lot of the day but I figure she needs nutrients to keep up her strength and continue nursing the babies as she has been.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

My girl wasn't up for much postbirth. She was exhausted, she had more babies than nipples. I think it should be fine. Maybe Get mama a bottle of ensure with her normal bottle. Mama rats are on super baby mode during the next four to five weeks so you will see her behavior change. In free range she may start trying to relocate her babies to another nest for no reason other than she's a mom. My girl would exhaust herself even once they could see and walk trying to drag them back to a nest. 


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## evander (Jun 30, 2013)

I fed my momma rat 6-10 times a day for the first 2 weeks because she seemed to never leave the nest and since she is a hairless I was already worried about her milk supply.

She was also an extremely young mom - she had 4 or 5 pups but only 2 survived - no idea why. but the 2 that survived are super sweet and healthy.

I gave her apple sauce and yogurt on a spoon and peas one at a time and tuna and sardines in small pieces.

Good luck!!


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## CindrDoLLy (Oct 3, 2012)

Well now I'm having the opposite problem...last night she wouldn't leave the nest at all, today she's barely been in it. I've been feeding her a bunch of stuff today to make up for her lack of appetite last night, today she got egg white cooked in butter, more carrot pieces, more deli turkey, a few small slices of salmon and baby cereal mixed with kitten replacer which she really liked. Today she's been very restless and roaming around the cage, laying in the corners for a few minutes, getting back up, climbing around the bars and chewing on them...I let her out for exercise earlier and she was roaming all over the place. While she was out, I checked her babies again...some had milk bands and others didn't.

I don't really know how to encourage her to feed them, or if I should just trust her and let nature take its course. It just really seems like she hasn't been with them much at all today and the lack of milk bands worry me. She's also put a big pile on top of them so they're completely buried in newspaper bits. She just leaves them buried then lays at the opposite end of the cage, acting restless.

I don't really know what else to do for her, I've left her cage door open all day today and have let her roam as she pleases. Now I have the cage door closed hoping she would go to her babies but she just keeps piling more and more newspaper on them and not actually feeding them. Is this normal?


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

How many kits?

She is burying them to keep them warm and safe. It is best to restrict her to the cage and monitor how long she gets out of the cage. If needed you might need a smaller mama cage. 


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## JBird (May 23, 2013)

Don't worry, this is all pretty normal behavior!! If she's getting restless, let her out to play. Make sure that there aren't any levels in the cage so when she's in there, she's near them. Burying kits is perfectly normal to keep them warm. Don't keep her out to play for more than about 20-30 minutes, as the kits need her to feed & keep them warm. Once she's gotten her energy out, you'll find she'll run right back to them and nurse. 

Don't worry so much, she'll do what needs to be done.  Maternal instincts are incredibly strong, and she will take care of her babies. If you don't see her in the nest for multiple hours, then begin to worry. In that case, keeping her locked up in there like you've done is a good solution. 

If you really fret the kits without milk bands, consider using some kitten milk to supplement. It's cheap at pet stores and can be fed using a small paintbrush that they can nurse on. I've found that many kits' stomachs are not in the same place, and milk bands can be harder to see on certain kits. If the litter is extraordinarily large, she may be having trouble feeding all of them equally, and she will either figure out a system or you can give the neglected kits some milk.


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## CindrDoLLy (Oct 3, 2012)

Thanks all for the advice!

She has 11 kits. I'll post pictures of them in a separate post. This it the cage I'm keeping her in:







The space pod has since been removed so I have easier access to the babies. The newspaper uses soy ink as well, I checked before using it.

She's actually been much more attentive today, my boyfriend had the day off and I asked him to check in on her periodically. He said every time he checked on her she was laying with the babies. awww.

Though, I checked the babies today after work and 5 out of 11 didn't have milk bands so that worries me...but they all seem lively and are growing at the same rate so I'll assume she knows what she's doing.

Would anyone recommend I try letting her visit her cagemates in a neutral area, far away from the babies? I think part of the problem is she's lonely. I know there's a chance she could be aggressive but I'd be on standby with a towel if an intervention was necessary. She hasn't been aggressive towards people at all so I feel like she probably won't be aggressive towards her rat buddies.


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## JBird (May 23, 2013)

Yeah! Definitely let her play with her cagemates during her down time. She would LOVE that.  There's a chance that she could be aggressive if her cagemate is next to the babies, but in a neutral area or in her old cage, she would be thrilled to see her old buddies. 
Looks like she's got a really nice set up there and is doing a bang-up job! She doesn't have enough nipples to feed 11 at once, so it's ok if she splits them up into two feeding groups. As long as they aren't visibly stunted, she is probably doing just fine.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

I let my girl play with my neutered male. She loved it and it helped lower her stress. Keep in mind when you are checking the mill bands you might be doing that before a feeding if you are just doing it randomly. 


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