Raising Baby Rats..

[Bexie]

Hey, im new..!
what it is, my female rat had about 10 babies about 10days ago.. she's let 7 of them die sadly!
its her 1st ever litter so im not THAT surprised..
ive tired to give the babies to another female but she's also not interested.. so all i can think of is hand rearing them myself!

...
im just wondering if anybody else has had to do the same?
ive read up on what to do, i no its going to be a hard job but i cant let them die!

any help is appreciated!
x

[Jaguar]

There is some good information on this thread.

There will be a sticky about caring for orphans soon 

[Bexie]

thank you that helped loads!

update:
sadly 1 of them died earlier on tonight (i thought she looked very weak anyway)
but the other 2 are about to have their 3rd feed and are gulping it all down!
im going to pop them on a heat mat tonight (with a stat on it to ensure it doesn't get too hot)
and give you and update tomorrow..

im going to try them with another female tomorrow and see how it gets on.. i dont want to put them with her tonight because i want to keep an eye on them in the day time...

x

[Stace87]

Do you breed your rats or is this an accidental litter?

[Bexie]

we havnt bred rats for for months now.. this was an accident though =(

x

[Bexie]

ive read about it for months (just in case) and this is the 1st time its ever happened and i was nervous.. i thought id ask on here for advice so the babies have the best chance of living.. in case anybody had done it before..

[ema-leigh]

You basically want to keep them warm and well fed. They will need to be fed a soy human milk or puppy replacement formula and Im assuming you know the rest from what you've read. All the equipment you need, and techniques. Dont forget to take a wet cloth and stimulate them to go the bathroom after every meal.

[Bexie]

they sadly died =(
im heart broken!x

[AMJ087]

Very sorry to hear.. 

[psycho_ash]

Poor little bubs. Im sorry but this could of been prevented, people shouldnt breed if you dont have any experience delievering or raising rat pups. Hope you learn something from this.

Agreed, if it was an intentional litter. Shame about the babes though.

[Bexie]

as i said before, it was NOT intentional..
i did USED to breed but NOTHING like this happened before.. i read up about it for months but somtimes reading isnt enough and now ive learnt from my mistakes..
i came on here for people to give me advice and wether some one had done it before..  dont no why i bothered though just to get it thrown bk in my face

[Jaguar]

Because we are HUGELY against unethical breeding here - and if you didn't already know how to raise abandoned pups, I highly doubt you are what we would consider standard for a breeder.  We don't really mean to give you a hard time about it, we just want what's best for the rats.  You should too, which is why you should take heed of these comments as they are true.

[AMJ087]

Ema, please stop attacking people. A member needs help, thats what the forum is about. Many have  accused you of wrongful breeding also and Im sure you dont like it either. We dont promote breeding here so lets all forget about that! Ema again Im sorry to hear about the loss. If you have more questions that you want answered please start a new thread. Im locking this one so an argument doesnt break out.

[AMJ087]

I agree in that we dont promote breeding ehre so that conversation must end now! However I think if a memebr needs answeres we should help, it may be a serious situation and us accusing and critizing is only hurting the rats.

[Bexie]

i was only asking for help and i just get people having ago @ me..
fair enough people some people done agree with breeding rats but thats there own preference..
all i was doing was asking for help, i didnt expect a big row to break out..
sorry if ive upset anybody