breeding

[unknownclown]

Hello I was wondering if anyone knows how long I can take a mother rat or mouse away from its litter to let her be rebred.

[rattekonigin]

Female rats and mice can be rebred within a few hours after giving birth, provided the male lives with them...if you have to remove the mother (because the male is in another cage, or for other reasons), you should probably wait until the babies have a good coat of hair, at least, because at the pinky stage they can't regulate their own body temps and they need mommy to do that for them. Leave them too long alone and they'll die of hypothermia...Personally, I would wait until the babies are weaned, if you need to remove the mother, just to make sure to avoid any problems...baby rats are generally weaned at 3-4 weeks, and I believe it's the same for mice...if you need to set up a constantly breeding colony, you can keep the male in with the females full time.

[unknownclown]

You know I tried keeping rats together and the male ate the babies the first time. The second time with another female I waited and took her out when she was obviously and visibly pregnant so the male wouldnt get to the babies this time but she has been giving birth all stinking week I would imagine from eggs being fertilized at different times. Out of 7 babies only one has survived. Its her first litter so maybe next time will be better for her Im hoping. Im also having the same problem with a female mouse but thats easier to overlook at the moment since they are cheaper to replace.

[rattekonigin]

Hmm...it's odd that the rat was eating his babies, it's not a common occurence with rats, more of a problem with mice...and you say she's been giving birth all week? That's really odd too, it should only take a few hours for a rat to give birth. Also, considering that only one baby has survived, I'd say that it's a fair bet that she was having trouble passing the babies and they died due to birth trauma. The long delivery time is not because of different egg fertilization times. (when the mother goes into labour everything up in there is going to come out, no matter how far along it is develomentally)

Hopefully, your female has finished birthing by now...if she hasn't there's a good chance that she could die from exhaustion from being in labour for so long...If she looks like she's not well, or she's still in labour but not passing any babies (lying flat out on her stomach with her lower back arching and her hindquarters tensing up) I'd normally say you should take her to a vet ASAP, but since these are feeders...

Now, not having seen your rats, I'd say it's probably because it's her first litter...but if she's a small-ish rat, or still young (under 4 months), it could be her size that's giving her problems...

In any case, I'd suggest you not breed her for a while so that she can rest up and get over the physical trauma that this difficult litter has caused, otherwise she could end up getting just burnt out or dying with the next litter.

[Lisa]

we've been giving our mommy's a break, letting them ween off their babies before putting them back in the general population.

[Burmies]

Just leave her in the same cage as the father of the litter she just had.

Burmies