# EMERGENCY: Orphaned rat babies



## amberdyan (Dec 6, 2010)

I had 2 accidental litters (2 different mom's, there was a mix up at the animal shelter.

One got sick and she was on amoxicillin for two days and just passed away sometime today in the 5 hours I was at work. 6 of her seven babies are alive. The other mom has babies, but they're four days apart. is there anyway I can get her to nurse the orphaned litter too?

That would only total 11 babies, would this be too taxing for her?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Not at all...I did that with 4 babies that were about 5 days younger than her current litter. Try it, and see if she'll nurse them, but you have to do it quickly or they will die. How old are the babies again?

11 babies is an average litter.

Is this the mom who lost 7 of her babies and was suddenly ill and died herself?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Did the babies survive?


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## amberdyan (Dec 6, 2010)

Yes, those are the only rats we have. I was so shocked that Aria passed away. She had JUST been starting to look better that morning  I'm heartbroken, and don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I feel like I've acted "by the book" so to speak. Maybe I'm not doing anything wrong, and these things were just out of my control, but I can't help but think that I must have missed some sign she was sick. Mistaken illness as baby raising exhaustion or something. I don't know.

Two of the babies are still alive. Amelia is nursing them but we think they're have to compete with the larger babies for food during feeding time. We're feeding them by hand with soy baby formula as well, since they look too thin. 
They're 12 days old, however I'm further worried about them because they look smaller than Amelia's babies did at 12 days old. (Amelia's babies are 16 days old now). I'm glad you mentioned that you'd managed to introduce a litter that was 5 days apart. That makes me feel better, as I was very worried that it wouldn't work since they seem to have such a big size difference. 

I'm also worried about their temperature. Is there something I can do to keep them warm? They never seem to feel terribly warm, and the other babies do cuddle up with them in the nest, but are often to busy scampering about to do so. 

I feel like I'm in an insane situation. I can't imagine what it would be like to breed rats on purpose. It's so much work and worry and stress. 

I believe we're going to keep most of them. We have a friend who has had rats in the past that wants to take 2 of them. We may just keep the rest of them- and get a second cage for the males (which will be located in my bedroom. In the basement. An entire FLOOR away from the females. I never want to have another litter, as cute as my guys and girls are.)

Thanks for your quick response. I'm sorry I took so long to answer, they're very time consuming. But I put them in straight away and then came and made this post. I was going to take them out if someone told me that 11 was too many or something, and was glad to hear it was okay.


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