[k_petersen5]

My boyfriend and I bought two female rats about three weeks ago, Blueberry and Kiwi. Blueberry seemed to be getting fat, and we were getting suspicous. Our suspicous were confirmed when Friday night I peeked in their house to find babies! I moved Kiwi to another cage right after. We were lucky enough to watch Blueberry give birth becasue it was only about 6pm when she started, and by 8om there was 14!!

They all seem to be doing good, we are leaving Blueberry alone becasue she seems to be very attentive. I have been looking at the at they do have milk bellies so she seems to be doing okay with the big litter.

I was wondering how long I should keep Kiwi seperated. She is much younger than Blueberry, I would say only about 8 weeks old, and Blueberry is twice her size. Kiwi just seems to be getting lonely, but I read on here there could be issues with her strealing babies. Could she move back in when the babies are over 2 weeks?

Also any suggestions would be great becasue we are first time rat owners and wanted 2 not 16!!! 8O
I'll post some baby pics soon too!

 

[A1APassion]

Might be best to hold off until they are 3 weeks of age. At 2 weeks they have just opened their eyes. At 3 weeks that are pop-corning all over. They will also be eating well on their own. However, you will have to monitor the interaction between them. Babies tend to overpower the adults & Kiwi will most likely be overwhelmed by the babies.

for the first week Kiwi will be fine on her own & Blueberry won't have a lot of time for visits. In the second week you can put then together for short visit while you check babies & handle them a bit. By the third week Blueberry will be glad for some escape time away from the babies & she will appreciate some longer visits while you play with the speedy little crew.

By that 4th week you may be able to keep them all together but watch them & of course by the 5th week you need to separate the boys from girls so at that point Kiwi will need to deal with the active babies because the boys will need to take over one of the cages until they go to new homes.

As for that... try to set up home now so that you can transition them into new homes at that point because they will be old enough to go.

Good luck!