# Preparing for Possible Babies



## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

Hello everyone! I brought home 5 rescue babies. A boy and 4 girls. I'm fairly certain two or three girls are pregnant, they have a good rounded belly. A couple of them are not very nice, hissing/squealing and biting. Is that normal for pregnant mamas? I'll need a lot of advice on caring for mom and babies. Rudy is the male and has lived with his 3 girls for roughly under a year. He's very bonded to them. He would not let me pick him up and was very protective of his girls. Now that he is away from them, will his behavior with me calm down? Is he going to get depressed? His eye sight is not very good, he's a PEW. The girls are in a temporary cage while I wait on my DCN to arrive. I was told all three have had a litter and Lindsay the baby is 4wks old she is from Lauren's last litter. Lindsay was never exposed to a male so I know she isn't pregnant but the other three might be as they have never been separated from Rudy. Daphne and Madison have rounded bellies. Madison is very aggressive and building a nest so I have a hunch she might be. Lindsay is very close to Madison more so than her mom so I wonder if she helped nurse Lauren's babies. The cage they are in is the all living things rat starter cage, it has a deep base. I'm assuming the girls all had their litters around one another. Hopefully I won't have babies but I'd like to be prepared in case. I have no idea how far along any are so I'm not sure how much time I will have to prepare should anyone be pregnant. Would it be better to house each mom in a tank/bin to have their babies? Could any or all moms stay in the cage they are in now? Should I move Lindsay away from the moms? The adults don't like to be held, Lindsay is a sweet heart, I'm worried I won't be able to check on any newborns or get the babies use to being held since the moms are so skittish and bite. Madison is especially aggressive, I put in some boxes for them to hide in and when I lifted one up she smacked it down and tried to bite me.


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## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

Here's a couple photos of bellies. Do you think they are pregnant?Madison has the most white on her belly. Daphne is the other. I couldn't get Lauren out of her corner but she has a small belly, Im less concerned with her.


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

It's best to seperate the mothers, and the pictures you show look like they are pregnant
For the safety of the babies, it's best for them to be in a tank or tub cage, I have mine in a normal cage and the babies always escape >~>...
A rat who doesn't nest, doesn't mean that she won't have babies, my girl didn't start nesting until the day she gave birth

It's normal for the mothers to get more aggressive when pregnant, but is only ever read that, my girl has always been aggressive
And it's good to add more protein to the pregnant girls diet, even after they give birth

Idk if I got all of your questions there, but feel free to ask more questions! I've done a lot of research on rat pregnancy/birth


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

Also, if you want to help the babies be kinder, set the mom's cage elsewhere and let her roam in a safe area (with a tank or bin, give her something to climb in or out) and interact with the babies carefully, I'd recommend leaving the moms and babies alone for a day or so before trying, and pick up each baby or the mom will get stressed from her babies smelling different


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

Oh! Last thing (unless you have more questions) you REALLY know they're pregnant about 3 days before birth, the mother's will look like they're going to pop 
I added a couple of pictures of my girl when she was pregnant, a few days before she was huge, but hopefully they'll help


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

I just realized another bit to your post
It is best to move Lindsay, and backtracking to what I said about separating the moms; if you have the room you should seperate the mothers, but if not and your tank/bin/cage is big enough, then the two mother's can stay together
Most of the time females can get very agressive to each other when they have the babies, but if they have room the nest and stay seperate, I'm sure they can stay together

Also, the most worrying time for the babies is the first 48 hours, if you notice that one of the moms aren't nursing the babies (there will be a white area on near their back legs that tells you weather they're being fed or not) , then you can carefully put them in the other mother's nest and hope she takes care of both the litters (I'd suggest wearing gloves when moving the babies)
It's also good for you to be there when the mom is giving pregnant and if it seems like she's still in labor but acting as if she's done, take her to a vet
I also read that if there's a stuck baby, massage the mom's stomach, and if that doesn't work you might have to pull the stuck baby out with tweezers
It'll kill that baby, but save the rest, but I honestly would leave the last point to professionals

Keep in mind though; It's rare when something happens, it's good to be prepared, but it's still rare


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## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

Thank you for the reply. The mothers all charge the cage and try to bite me. Lauren broke my skin as well. It took me an hour and a gloved hand to move the adults from the container they lived in to the current cage. Last night I was holding the baby for awhile and when I put her back in the cage Daphne and Madison sniffed her, bit her a few times, and then threw her. The baby is safe now and nothing seems to be wrong with her. This however showed me that I won't be able to hold the babies without them getting hurt.


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

Well, you could try holding the babies when they are about 2 weeks old. At this point the mother's won't try hurting them because they're too old just to give up on, though I'd suggest wearing a glove to pick a baby up, then taking the glove off when your safely away from the mothers
My mother, Midnight, is also a pretty agressive girl, and would attack/fight anything near her (she once punched a cat in the nose) and she's broken my skin many times, but even if I have my sent on the babies, or even a stranger's sent, she didn't attack the babies, just licked them until the sent was off
I waited for strangers to handle them until they were 3 weeks because although Midnight is aggressive, she still knew my sent, and didn't mind me messing with her babies
Just make sure when you handle a baby, always wash your hands first, and try to handle each one separately so that they have your sent, though I'd suggest not putting them straight back into the cage after holding them, maybe you can put them in a safe area before putting them all back
That way the mother won't be shocked when one baby is there with a different sent than others

Or as a different thought, you can wait to handle them until about 4 or 5 weeks
Then they can leave their mother and you can start trying to hold them (with gloves at first) and slowly socialize them
I had gotten a 4 week old from a pet store when he was meant to be a feeder, after a few days he became the sweetest thing just from me holding him for a while every day, he'd often hide under my shirt, then soon would explore with my other boy around the couch


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## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

Okay I will wait until they are 4wks to socialize them. Do you know why the girls attacked the baby after I put her back in? Daphne is glued to Lauren and I only see her leave her side when I open the cage door or at night to eat. Could these two be in the same tank? I finally saw Lauren's belly and it is just as round as the other girls so I'm preparing for 3 mommas due at the same time. What size tank could Daphne and Lauren be in together? What size tank can I put Madison in? How can I keep enough air circulating in the tanks?


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## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

Also, where do I find homes for all of the babies?


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

Alice59 said:


> Okay I will wait until they are 4wks to socialize them. Do you know why the girls attacked the baby after I put her back in? Daphne is glued to Lauren and I only see her leave her side when I open the cage door or at night to eat. Could these two be in the same tank? I finally saw Lauren's belly and it is just as round as the other girls so I'm preparing for 3 mommas due at the same time. What size tank could Daphne and Lauren be in together? What size tank can I put Madison in? How can I keep enough air circulating in the tanks?


They might have attacked her because she smelt weird to them and they didn't like it (I'm not completely sure, that's just my guess)
I would think they could be in te same tank, especially if they're that close 
I would suggest (if you can get it) a 50 gal tank for the two (or as big as you can get) and 20 for the one, if you can't have them in a tank so large, you can keep the two in their cage and just move the one, just make sure that any large gaps are covered (I tore up egg cartons and padded the large gaps in my cage)
If you do keep them in a cage, you don't have to worry about the babies escaping for a week or two
With ventilation, I would take the lid off every hour or so for a few minutes (if you put a lid on it, if so I'd still have the mesh lids so that there's still air circulating)
What I do when finding homes is posting an ad on craigslist or any online advertising thing and include an adoption fee so that the chance of them being snake food is less (especially price $5 or more)


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

This suddenly occurred to me; you could also give the babies to your local pound
I like to know who takes the babies from me, but if you have a pound that takes rats, you could take them there


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

I was asking a friend about rats being in a tank (she knows more about it than me, I've kept mine in one-story cages when pregnant)
Rats should be able to get plenty of ventilation in a tank, as long as you have a screen topper and you take it off for a few moments throughout the day (not every hour as I've previously thought) sorry for my misinformation before!


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## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

The cage they are in has two plastic levels. Should I take those out so they won't carry babies up? I'll have to keep the two in the cage and get a 20 gal tank for the other. I'm hoping they have small litters because I don't know what I'll do with 30 babies each haha. Is there any other bits of information I'm forgetting to ask about? Thank you so much for all the help.


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

You should take them out, at least until the babies are 2 weeks old, then they can climb or being taken up as their mothers and they want to do

Hopefully they're first-time mothers, after the first litter they can have A LOT of babies at once (I once read that someone's rat had 22 babies)
The first-time mother's can still have up to 12 babies (mine had 11!) 
If the rats aren't quite sutible to be mothers, they could have five or less babies, they should still care for the babies, but there's just less

I hope for your sake that at least one rat has five or less

I don't think there's anything else you need to know :3
Though if you ever have more questions as time goes on, feel free to send me a PM
Good luck with them!


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## Alice59 (Oct 27, 2015)

Thank you so much! I'm not sure who, but one of the girls has had two litters and the other two have each had one. I guess I should be preparing for 90 babies 😭


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## Kittenlin (Jul 26, 2017)

Oh no!! D:
I hope you can find them all homes o~o
But hopefully they'll have less
It's good to be prepared for many, many babies, it's normal for them to have many babies after a litter or two, but hopefully they don't have too many!
And you're welcome! I'll happily help as much as I can


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## comprar (Dec 4, 2015)

It's normal for the mothers to get more aggressive when pregnant, but is only ever read that, my girl has always been aggressive


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