My rat had babies........

[sapphire_moon]

my tennis ball rat (how big she was) gave birth finally......I thought I heard weird sqeaking last night (early morning) and I just went to check on her...and there they were...atleast a few hours old.

I grabbed one of the pinks and gave it to my corn. I flicked it in the back of the head, it didn't move, stopped breathing, the started twitching! It still wasn't breathing though so i knew it was dead. The back of the head started to go black. Someone said they will twitch because of massive stimulation to the nerves? I hope so. I felt so bad :( . I gave the mother some treats, and she is nursing now. And I will get some more for future feedings later......
wow, I still feel kind of bad....but the snake has to eat.....

I do have a question though.....those of you that are pagan (wicca, stregheria, witch craft, whatever one since pagan is supposed to be an umbrella term, or even indian) do you thank the mother for letting you have the baby? Or thank some god/dess? I hope that doesn't sound like a really strange/crazy question.....

[Auskan]

How many did she have?

[sapphire_moon]

God I didn't get a good count......from a quick look maybe 8 (now 7), this is her first litter.
Maybe more, I'm not sure, I am going to be able to get a better count after work, to giver her time to make sure she is done giving birth. and a little time to relax......though i'm sure she's done......
good news is my other 2 girls looks like they are starting to balloon!

[mykee]

The Pinkie Gods have blessed you.:cool:

[Linds]

Congrats on the litter! I'm none of the above, but I always talk to everything be it plants or animals. When I'm taking babies I usually apologize to both babies and parents. That's just me talking a lot... I'm always babbling to whatever I'm working with at the time, regardless of whether they can understand or even hear :p

[marisa]

I am totally not into thinking things that don't understand me can BUT I also talk to everything LOL. My turtles, snakes and mice.

I always say sorry to each mouse when my BF is doing the whacking. lol

Marisa

[sapphire_moon]

Ok we were able to get a good count, after she lunged at my hands, I ended up having to pick her up by the tail.....:( her little female rattie parts look so sore!
She HAD 10 babies, but as mykee said the Pinkie gods blessed me on feeding day so I gave one to my corn snake, I've never seen her hit so hard! and then when we did the count, took 3 more. So down to 6, we are going to let her raise atleast 3 to a little bigger than adult mouse size, and then "do them in" for my picky female bp and then let the other ones go till weaning. Hopefully by then my other 2 female rats will have had babies by then......:) I still felt really bad when I did the other three...:(
I did one wrong I guess because when I put it in the bag for freezing it started to squeek! I flipped out and did this pinch like thing, between it's head and "shoulders", it stopped moving immediately. I am guessing I broke it's neck?

is 10 a good number for a first litter?

[Auskan]

Sounds good to me. Mine had 6 last week and it was at least her 2nd litter (I only adopted her 2 weeks ago & she had 4 weanling youngsters with her when I adopted her). I have no idea if she's had other litters before those. However others on this site have indicated that 12-18 is an "average" sized litter.

[sapphire_moon]

Well it would be nice if all my females had 12 each.......3 snakes.....3 females.......12 each.......that would be nice....:)