we've had a LOT of trouble with this problem in the last month when all of our girls started having babies....... they were all in large cages but could not keep thier own babies. The sealing was getting out of hand and a few were lost due to "tug-of-war" when the mothers were stealing back and forth.
Our major problem started with a litter of 13 & 18 babies, the one mother taking all 31, and couldn't possibly feed them all, plus one being ripped apart, and another dying due to fighting right over the nest area. The same thing ended up happening with all the mothers (with at least 10+ dead) and was a complete mess.
The advice I was given every time was to separate them, which I did and had cages, rubbermaids and every dish in house all over the place with all the different mothers and their babies. If you only have 2, I say separate them.
Under some circumstances, I would think nature would work itself out, but sometimes nature sucks. So unless you have a snake that's a pinky pig (like our hoggy), gashed open babies cuz of fighting will be no good for you!
We built a rat rack for under $100 and holds 10 single rats with a litter (cycle around males) with our old cages to grow up to different sizes, seems to be working perfect and takes up VERY little space. Depending on how many you plan to keep/raise, you might want to look into something like that.
Good luck! Write me if you want to know more
Jessy
Rodents
Linear Mode
