found babies in the rat cage...

[YUMgrinder]

So someone gave us three rats with a cage setup last summer. One had a large tumor that eventually grew to be bigger than she was, and could no longer walk much. It was sad and we kept her comfortable, food and water was close to her hut, etc. We thought she would be the first to go. She was not the first to go, one of the other females died then a month later our tumor ridden one died. So that left us one female. Getting old we feared she would get lonely and waste away. Last week we got 2 more females from the pet store. Yesterday morning my GF's daughter (7 years old) came to us and asked why there were little pink things moving around. My GF freaked out "THERE BETTER NOT BE ANY BABIES!" haha sure enough, we located 7 of them.

 

[itchyfeet]

They kind of look like human babies there :smile031::smile008:
Rats are interesting creatures! I've been tempted before but our manger is full.

 

[SilverSage]

Oh my!! Is mommy taking care of them?


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[YUMgrinder]

Oh my!! Is mommy taking care of them?


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Well, when we first saw them, one of the rats was carrying one around, and she must have JUST had them cause she was licking off the blood from the last baby, but we thought she was EATING IT so we scrambled to get them all out of the cage. turns out she was just getting the umbilical cord off. There was a decent amount of blood but it wasn't coming from a half eaten baby, momma was just taking care of him. We had to take some bedding out as there was too much so we sifted through it till we found all the babies, put them in a group and left them to settle. I fear we stressed them too much in the commotion so I haven't checked on them since. My GF said she can hear them making baby noises but we are trying to leave them alone. I'll probably check on them in the morning, we don't know which one is the mother as there are three females and rats co parent really well. It could be either of the two we just got. There must have been a male in the cage the petstore did not know about.

 

[Owlet]

Hi I suggest checking out ratforum.com they've been very helpful to me in the past and with a surprise set of babies in your hand it might be a good idea!

 

[YUMgrinder]

oh great, I recounted today and there's actually 9 babies. They are getting color now!

 

[SilverSage]

PICTURES!!!!!


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[YUMgrinder]

I suppose I could share a pic!