[bsbfrantic]

My friend was suppose to pick up pinkies for my snake, and she got me live rat pinkies, I can't bring myself to feed them to my snake, so I am asking for how to care for them and keep them alive until they are older. Their eyes arent even open yet or anything. We have experience nursing rabbits from birth, but I am not sure about baby rats? Hope you don't hate me cause of the circumstances, I am trying to find a new home for my snake cause I can't handle the feeding process. So looks like hes starving and I have two new additions to my family as long as I can keep them alive. Thanks.

 

[lilspaz68]

http://www.afrma.org/rminfo8.htm

Good luck. Try your best but it will be difficult.

 

[twitch]

read the article and try that but unfortunately rats don't do well without their mothers at the age and most will die. there is a chance so you should certainly try your hardest but don't be surprised if they don't make it.

 

[DonnaK]

You could check with local animal shelters or even pet shops to see if you can find a nursing female rat? That would certainly make things a bit easier on you and the baby rats.

 

[bsbfrantic]

So far I feed them multiple meals a day by using an eye dropper and infant formula of my daughters. They seem to be doing just fine. I have them in a little container with torn up napkins to keep them warm and I leave them on my computer AC box cuz its always warm and I can't find my heating pad. I hope this works and I am going to read over the articles. Thanks.

 

[lilspaz68]

bsbfrantic, just make sure you are encouraging them to eliminate by rubbing their genital area with a warm damp cloth or papertowel. You are imitating Mom in this case since they are unable to eliminate on their own. IF you aren't doing this, the waste is building up in their systems and is turning toxic. The infant formula is just fine, as they say a mother rat's milk is very similar to a humans, even more than dog and cat milk replacer.

These babies are a bit older than yours I would imagine but you see what the mom is doing to make them eliminate.

I took in a 24 hour old eeper but the sweet thing didn't have a chance. The one feeding her mom gave her before ignoring her was rotting in her belly, she died about 7 hours later. Just so you know this is how sudden it can be. She was pink, and eeping loudly and squirming, then 15 secs later she was dead. 8O

Oh...you never mentioned what the babies look like. I have day to day photos of my one oops litter so we could probably figure out how old they are.
Are they still hairless and pink?
Do they have a light fuzz of fur?
Do they have a coat but their eyes are still closed?
Are their ears still pressed tightly to their heads or they starting to lift off?
How do they move...do they drag themselves around on their bellies with their head low? Or do they lift their heads and skuttle around?

I have videos and pics of all their changes, since its very important to know where your babies are in their development.

Let us know.

 

[bsbfrantic]

We have been wiping their tummies and privates with a warm cloth after every feeding..... We are kinda just taking it as though they are bunnies or puppies.....

They have a beige coat, their eyes are closed, there ears seems like they are starting to come away from their heads a LITTLE..... One of them skuttles around with its head high and the other one drags itself a little more. I don't even know if they are the same age??? or even from the same litter? One is also smaller than the other.....

When we nursed the baby rabbits (the mother would kill them) they would always seem healthy..... then like you said, they would just be dead an hour later. Out of 20 babies, we only were able to save one bunny! Same with our mean pomeranian that tried to kill all her puppies and we couldn't save any by nursing them. Its really sad. We keep expecting that with these, so it is very stressful because my daughter is trying to name them..... They seem like they are doing okay though.....

I have a question too, it said when their eyes open to start mixing cereal into their milk and thickening it a little. What kind of cereal? Baby cereal?

 

[lilspaz68]

Honestly up to 3 weeks I would give them the formula alone, after that they should be able to feed themselves and then you can offer the baby cereal with the formula. I also put a titch of strawberryEensure or Boost in as well for added nutrients. Once their eyes open they will become quite the wobbly explorers, and you can put down other foods for them to try if they want to, like Suebee's mix (google for ingredients to buy at grocery store), broken up lab blocks, thawed/warmed frozen peas and corn, etc.

OK, I'll add pics of babies at different ages so you can get a feel for yours.

Bear at 8 days old

9 days old

11 days old

14 days

15 days old

Does this help?

 

[Inesita]

I'm not much help on this subject, sorry. But I just have to say, lispaz68, Aw, they're too cute!

 

[Scarekrow]

Twitch is right--you need to find a nursing mother. Although bunnies are ALMOST as cute as rats (forgive my bias opinion ), they're not the same. Female rats aren't as likely to kill the babies, whether or not the babies are their own. When I was four my dad and I had two nursing rats (there are MANY funny stories that go along with this, but I'll save those for another day). One day, my dad and his girlfriend were out on a walk and his girlfriend's dog started digging. They pulled the dog away only to find a nest of abandoned baby moles. We took them and gave them to Jack, one of our nursing rats, and she took them in as if they were her own.

If *I* had a nursing rat, I'd take them in a heart-beat, I can't stand to watch animals go like that. Ask around, maybe go to the local pet shop and ask if they know any breeders that have rats that are currently nursing and see what you can do. Best of luck.

Love,
Redd

 

[tasha]

I want to hear what happened!