# Momma rat not spending enough time with babies.



## munakgirl

My rat has suddenly decided she doesn't quiet know if she wants to be a mom or not. She is about 8months or so old now, and this is her second litter. She did really well with her first litter.
But this time... she just isn't spending enough time in the nest... The babies are about 6days old and she spends hours out.... Actually I hardly ever see her go in the nest... the first 3 days she was doing really well... I checked the babies a few times after I started to handle them on day 3 and they had milk bellies the few times I checked so I wasn't to worried although they weren't full but figured she was just doing small regular feedings maybe... until today which she seems to have spent the least time in the nest... I checked the babies to see if they were alive cuz I spent a few hours in here and she hadn't visited the nest once, just ate, drank and slept and then played and slept... I watched a few movies. My room is quiet mostly aside from the occasional bark from my yorkie when something startles her (not that often). An normally my rats arn't even phased by it. She's blocked off so dog cant go near her cage so she doesn't feel threaten as well.

Babies were alive.... but don't have milk bellies. An the rent is doing not so great. But no matter how much I try to tempt her to get in the nest she wont... She completely buries them in the nest and leaves it... I dunno what to do ;-; I can't supplement them yet cuz they cant drink or suck on their own well yet. An her previous breeder doesn't have a foster available right now. 
An I don't see any physical reason she'd abandon her litter... they all seem relatively healthy... 
Beautiful rex/normal veriberk dumbo babies ;-;. Also the litter isn't too large its 9babies. 

My previous rat did perfectly well with 11babies keeping them very well fed and was a super mom. Although extremely protective and aggressive towards me... New moma (yue) is not aggressive at all, and still begs to come out and play. So I dunno >.>; she just not having fun nursing and wanna be done?


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## RatzRUs

Are you breeding?


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## lilspaz68

Just so you know, there's a policy of NOT discussing deliberate breeding, accidental litters only. 

But its possible she isn't lactating, or there's something wrong with the pups and she knows it and is abandoning them

Or she's a poor mom and just feeds them and leaves. That also is likely You aren't going to see milk bellies at day 6, the skin ove rthe abdomen has thickened too much for that. ou just have to watch and make sure they are growing. She may be a sly feeder...do you hear the babies sqalling, then settle down...if so she's feeding them.


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## munakgirl

No I'm not breeding... The only reason I opted to take care of this mom and her litter was cuz the 'young' girl I got her from was her previous 'breeder' I was going to get a few babies from her (only person I could find anywhere in oregon who bred this color/type of rat) I was on a previous breeders waiting list for 5yrs until all the oregon breeders retired...
An she suddenly decided to stop breeding this couple even though they had only bred once and was moving from dumbo to fancy rats... An offered to adopt her to me as she was likely already preg and said I could raise the litter, keep the ones I wanted and adopt the others out (an that she might want if I have a cute boy)
She also had them on pine shavings I found out when I went to get her and all sorts of other random bad.... so I dunno if I want her to take one of them back >.>; Unless she listen to me and stopped using pine shavings.

anyway... The past previous litter I had was also accidental. As I had gotten a rat off craigslist as an emergency for my other rat who was old and her friend suddenly died and she needed a companion. So I wanted to find an older rat, found a 8month old rat and she was pretty nice... until 3 days later (while in quarentine) she became aggressive and started nesting. So I contacted the lady I got her from and asked if she was ever with any boys and she said no... couple days later found 11 pinkies and tried to contact her again no replies at all.

But I had researched alot about rats, genetics and all that so was pretty confident in raising the litter tame and finding them decent homes. But that rat did really well taking care of her litter, aside that I had to lure her out every time I touched the babies. 
This time I still lure her out so she doesn't get nervous about me handling them infront of her. But she has no problem with my hand in the cage and just wants to come out and play.

Anyway... this wasn't deliberate breeding on my behalf. But I did agree to take care of her and the litter. Other wise I was going to have to wait another few yrs for a chance at this type of pairing. Or just miss out all together. 
I'll be keeping probably 2-3 babies from the litter and have 2 people already who want some. Others I'll find homes for easily.

I'm just concerned that they live. She's spent a lil time in the nest today... An she does randomly spend time with them its just usally like maybe a few times a day if we're lucky? Or if she wants to go in there its for a few minutes then she leaves. I'm worried not only is she not feeding them enough that she might not be cleaning them and stuff. 
Also is there anything I can do to help her lactate if she's not producing enough milk? I provide her with plenty of food.


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## LightningWolf

Ok.

Anyways, check to make sure that they have milk bands. If they do, everything is ok. Some females don't stay over the nest, some do. I've known of rats who would even Hand you the babies. You really can't do much about making her lactate more though. If you want to and if they don't have milk bands, or if some do and some don't. Take the runt and the smallest (so the weakest) and basically just hand feed them to help them along. Or maybe call your local exotic shop, or find someone who has a lactacting female with a small litter and see if she will foster half the litter. Personally unless its noticable that they aren't getting fed, I would worry too much.


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## gothicrats

I have had lots of mothers who will feed when no one is in the room, and then when we enter the room, jump off and ignore them. But when peeking around the corner so she can't see me, I'll see the "neglectful" mom feeding them. I've noticed some females just do not like company or are too ADD to focus on babies while people are in the room as it could mean playtime!


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## sherriwat

I'm no expert but my big mama doesn't spend anytime w her babies really but all 12 are big healthy fat babies. She spends maybe 2 minutes at a time w them that I've caught her w them. Hope this helps sounds similar to ur mama Hun. Hope all goes well


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