# Mother rat does not want to go back to babies?



## grim13sleeper (Feb 12, 2016)

I have an accidental litter of 13 twenty-two day old rats. Every day we let the mother of the litter visit her sisters in their cage while we handle the babies. She usually lets us get her right out and put her back but right now she's jumping every time I reach for her, trying to hide, acting like she's going to bite me and this is nothing like she has ever acted before. Is this normal? Is it safe to let her stay in the other cage or do the babies still need her with them?


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

They need their mom until they are 5 weeks old. I believe she might be in heat, rats can be in heat while still nursing. That would explain why she is so jumpy.


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## grim13sleeper (Feb 12, 2016)

She acts like she has no interest in getting back in the cage. She chewed through a water bottle and actually jumps at the top of the tank over and over. She has lost weight and we feed them VERY well. Rowan has never acted this way and it was even scaring the other two females (her sisters)


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## grim13sleeper (Feb 12, 2016)

If we try to touch her she flees very quickly and becomes incredibly defensive.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

What do you have her and the babies housed in? I've seen this a couple of times with girls with large litters like yours. I think it's mainly a desire to be let out of a cramped space and away from all those pushy little pups. Do you have a cage with very small bar spacing and a deep base? I typically move mine out of bins/tanks after 3 weeks because it just becomes too much for mom to handle being cooped up with them with no escape. Small bar spacing is essential though, so if you don't have a cage like that then don't move them. You can always add a hammock or something to her current bin to give her a way to get away. She may be jumpy because she's not sure how she's going to get back to her pups while she's in the other cage; could just be stress. It's also important to point out that by this point, your pups should be getting at least some of their nutrition from solids. If you haven't made that available and all they've got is nursing still then that could explain the weight loss in your girl and her desperation to get away. I actually let some of my girls free range in the past while they were caring for a litter; they always come back to the nest but will spend less and less time with them as they get older since weaning is essentially done at 4 weeks (even though most continue nursing for another week or more depending on the doe).


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

When females have babies they get hormonal and also just have a big change in personality. This is quite normal for many moms- they won't want to be handled or even become aggressive. It will fade in time.

At 3 weeks old the babies are quite a handful for mom. I don't blame her lol they are going to be driving her crazy! I am kidding but it is actually real the babies are at an inbetween stage of being babies and yet almost weaned and many females just have had enough of them at this age lol. My girls sometimes get a bit cranky at the 3 week mark because they are just stir crazy and the babies are buggy lol. I like to give the mom alot of breaks during the day. She can stay out an hour even, or do 30 min breaks 2-3 times a day. 

I would make it positive for mom, when you put her back with the babies give her a yummy special treat.

She does need to stay with the babies until 5 weeks old.

At 3 weeks old though the babies can be given playtime out of the cage to help burn off some of that baby energy as well.


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## grim13sleeper (Feb 12, 2016)

Unfortunately all we have to keep her and the babies in is the bin they are in now. We have a very large multilevel cage for our other girls, but we weren't expecting this accidental litter so we weren't prepared. We do give her about an hour, sometimes more if we have the time, to play in the big cage with the others and we make sure she's eating when she's in the large cage to make sure she's getting enough food since the babies are eating the solid food, too. We were just worried that since she was being aggressive with her cage mates that she would be to the babies, but we got her back in last night and made her scrambled eggs and she started to calm down. Thank you guys for all of your help and advice.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Id definitely try and get hold of a bigger cage even if you need to borrow it. A decent sized cage at this age isn't also important to help the mum not be stir crazy, it helps the babies learn to climb and develop physically. You will also need at least 1 cage shortly anyway to split the babies by sex at around 4.5 to 5 weeks.

If mum is really struggling with staying with the babies (not all mums enjoy the experience) then as long as the babies feel solid and are doing well you could mostly move her out at 4 weeks, putting her back in for an hour or two twice a day. I actually start letting my mums spend more time away from the babies eacy day at this stage so its not such a harsh break when they leave her.


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