Is 13 good?

[sapphire_moon]

Is 13 a good size for a first litter? One of my other rats FINALLY gave birth. And the final count was 13. Do you think she will have trouble feeding them all with this being her first litter?

[Lisa]

sounds good to me, if you have any other pregnant or nursing moms they should help.

[sapphire_moon]

I do have one other nursing mother, but her babies are one week old (wow didn't realize that much time had passed!). And she did help in the "delivery", while the mother was eating the placenta, she was cleaning the baby, and after the mother got done eating it (ewww gross) she gently handed the half cleaned baby over to the mother........

but has showed no interest since then??? Is this normal? SHOULD she be showing intrest in the other babies?

[blazinreps]

my female i bought on thursday she gave birth on saturday she had a litter of 14 but she did a weird thing shes all by her self and for some reson on sunday she divide the babies up in to 2 seperate nests on eather end of the cage. one nest is like a mound that covers the babies the outher ons she just covers them with paper has anyone else seen this?

[Lisa]

saphire: it's normal, they will probably take turns nursing.

[sapphire_moon]

one nursing the 1wk olds and the other nursing the 1 day olds? Thats neat, lol.

[marisa]

They will all nurse all the babies regardless of size, age etc. Sometimes if you have a large pile of babies from various mothers the mothers will split the nest to make nursing easier...this is also normal. But I have only seen them do it when there is like 40+ babies in the cage.

Marisa

[sapphire_moon]

cool. There might be! I think my other female is also pregnant, but maybe wks behind her? She "seems" to be getting bigger, and I KNOW my beige female is due in about 2 wks.

[mykee]

In my opinion, quit stressing it, nature will work itself out. The more you look in and check things out, the more stressed the rats become. It always works out in the end.

[Auskan]

Congrats - 13 is a great number. Lots of food LOL.

[sapphire_moon]

lol, ya, lotsa food. I check on them in the mornings and at night. I don't go into the nests or anything. I just look in the top part.