Rat Moms & Baby Sharing

[Mark]

i agree... but i would take the male out. I have a blind rat (male) that i figured was safe enough to leave in with the females seeing he was blind, To no avail 7 pinks out of the 10 were gone in 1 day not totaly ate but heads were eaten.

This qoute to me sounded like you were breeding him.

[damzookeeper]

I only have one rat colony old enough to produce at this time, and two growing up. So, not alot of experience there but my established colony seems very protective and loving to all their babies. My mice on the other hand used to eat their babies often, but I have changed them into breeding bins with better water supply and easier access to food I have not had any problems with eating since. I find if they run out of water for a day they will eat the babies but this has only happened a couple times since they have changed bins and it was when I was on vacation. I read somewhere that they will only eat their young if something is wrong with the babies, something is wrong with them, or they don't have enough food or water supply. And I didn't read this but I would think maybe too much inbreeding might do it as well.
Just something to think about.

[hhw]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I put the first mother back in, but all the older babies just stuck with the newer mother all the time, so I put the first mother in with the father, to get her knocked up again.

For the most part, I'm keeping 2 females in each lab cage, and just rotating the males through as the females show signs of pregnancy. This allows me to keep less males, while giving the females a break between litters.

I guess I've just been paranoid since I lost 5/11 of my first litter, which I'm still not sure why. I'll retire that female if it happens again.

[justinO]

I personally would separate them because of the time inbetween the 2 litters. I find that the pinkies can't get to the food if there are 15 pups that will always get to it first. After finding way too many abandoned, cold or skinny babies, now i separate them into a holding cell type cage.

If they have the litters within a week of each other, then I leave them all in and the mothers take turns, usually.

As soon as the pinkies can fend for themselves and chase down a mom (a week or more) then I just put them all back.

Anyway, that's just what I do, isn't raising your own food fun? heh


Jessy