[twilight]

I'm fostering a mom rat who has a litter of 13+. They are around 2 months old. Mom is pretty thin from feeding so many. Can I seperate the mom from the babies at this age? They are eating and drinking on their own.

Oh and if anyone is interested, they need homes. They are all blue hoddies! We are in Northern California.

 

[Forensic]

2 months? Eight Weeks?

They should have already been split male/female at that age, and yes, it should be safe to take them from mom. Though at this point would Mom even still be feeding?

 

[twilight]

I think mom is still nursing just for the fact she couldn't get away from them. I will take the mom out. I'm sure she is going to be happy.

 

[Nazarath]

Yea, they should have taken her babies away at about 5 1/2 weeks old. Have they been sexed? they are old enough to breed and the brothers might try and mate with thier sisters and possibley momma.

 

[twilight]

They have not been sexed yet and im pretty bad at it.

 

[Nazarath]

They way I sex them is I check tummys for nipples if your having a hard time with their gen. Only the girls will have nipples. If you like I can post a pic of my 11 day old girl?

 

[Forensic]

If they're older than 5 weeks they need to be sexed and separated now. Can you take pictures of their tummies?

 

[twilight]

Well I sexed them all. It wasn't to hard since the boys had their "parts" already. Thanks for the help!

 

[Forensic]

Good! Have you separated them? You should probably have all the girls (including Mama) on pregnancy watch for the next three weeks.

 

[Kimmiekins]

You're definitely going to have to be ready for pregnancies if they are 2 months old... I hope for your sake, you don't have many if any! But be prepared...

Babies should be weaned and separated by 5 weeks. Any longer, and the females can (and will) get pregnant. By 5 weeks, the boys can also get mama pregnant.

Be sure if anyone adopts any females that they are aware that they very well may be pregnant. I'd suggest keeping all the girls for 3 weeks, like forensic said.

 

[2manyrats]

If it makes you feel any better... though some males are physically able of breeding at 5 weeks, many will take a while longer to develop the urge to merge.

That said, you'd better start praying to your deity that none of your boys were overachievers!

 

[twilight]

Well I really hope no one is pregnant! The good news is they all have homes, including the mom. They will be going to Rattie Ratz Rescue foster home. 4 of the males have found real homes.