Lonely Baby Rat I Need Advice!

I just got two little 4 week old baby rats, girls, and one of them just suddenly died. Now My mum wont let me get another pet rat so how can i make my little baby feel heppy now that she is alone?

At 4 weeks she should probably still be with mom, and you should really try to find her a friend or return her :/ that’s too young to be alone for the rest of her life. Rats need their friends!
Why won’t she let you get another one if she let you get two in the first place?

I am so very sorry that the baby died
{{hugs}}

Babies are weaned between 4 and 5 weeks old and baby girls need to stay with their mama until they are at least 6 weeks old.
Rats need to live with at least one other rat ….. and babies need another baby to play with
so you must get her another rattie girl to live with - preferably one of her sisters

What are you feeding the baby?
You may want to supplement a good quality block (oxbow or Harlan Teklad 2014) and daily vegs (there is a forbidden foods list) with organic soy infant formula thickened with organic baby cereal - the formula should be at your local grocery store in the infant section, if not it can be ordered online from Walmart
babies often can not get water out of water bottles even tho they look like they are drinking because their tongues are not strong enough to move the ball bearing with all the water pressure behind it. So in addition to the water bottle, use a water dish that can not be upset ….. rats need at least 2 sources of water in their cage and water dishes need to be cleaned a coupe of times a day

You should be aware that rats are not inexpensive pets and frequently require vet care from a good vet with the knowledge and experience to treat rats. I hope you have parental support for your pets because vet bills and medications can be expensive. Rats get sick and die fast so when you notice your rat is ill, you are well into a medical emergency .

I hope your remaining girl is ok, and that you can quickly get her another baby to live with because she can not be kept alone.
You should also consider getting her spayed when she is a bit older if you have access to a good vet with the knowledge and experience to safely spay rats https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/why-spay-or-neuter-rats.35402/

good luck with your girl and with your mom

Thank you for your information, Ive had baby rats before but none of them just died. And the shelter we got them from said that they were weaned at 3.5 weeks of age. Yes, I know a very good vet, but I also have two bigger girl ratties who have been fighting with each other. Do you think that when my little blueberry gets older i could introduce her to the bigger one as friends? And thank you for the concern about the vets, my mother is one so I have all of that taken care of . Thank you for answering!

That shelter knows little about rats …… babies will start trying solid foods at a young age and will learn what is safe to eat from their mamas, but their mama will gradually wean them so that they are weaned between 4 and 5 weeks of age. A baby weaned at 3.5 weeks will usually survive but will not be as healthy as s/he would have been if allowed to be weaned normally by its mama. Only babies used for snake food are taken away from their mamas that young. Even mama rats having back to back litters who are forced to wean their babies too young because they are having a second litter, do not wean their babies that young.

I hope that you are supplementing with the organic soy infant formula thickened with baby cereal.

You need to get the baby another baby to live with or find her somewhere else to live
The baby is missing her mama, and all her siblings - a lot of loss and trauma for a tiny baby that is not even old enough to be away from her mama.
She can not live alone until she is old enough (at least 8 weeks old but 10 weeks is safer) to be introed to your older girls or for the time it takes to do gradual intros once the baby is old enough
- if all rats are under 12 weeks old then they can just be put together, otherwise gradual intros need to be done.
Plus babies need other babies to play with, if they do not then they will irritate the adults they live with.

As for intros, see joinrats.com for lots of good info and here are the established gradual intro stepshttps://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/the-established-gradual-introduction-steps-used-when-putting-new-rats-together.32368/

good luck

Thank you guys for all of your advice I got two more baby rats 2 weeks younger than her and they get along GREAT! they cuddle and eat together. Yay!

Alexzee said:

Thank you guys for all of your advice I got two more baby rats 2 weeks younger than her and they get along GREAT! they cuddle and eat together. Yay!

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So glad that she has friends but …. the two new babies are only 4 weeks old? too young to be away from their mama?
Please make sure that in addition to feeding a good quality block (Oxbow or Harlan Teklad 2014) and daily vegs, you also give all 3 of them organic soy infant formula thickened with baby cereal in a shallow dish ……….. and make sure you give then a water dish that can not be upset

Hope you post pics … we love pics

Is there a rat block that dosent have fish in it because i am a vegetarian and I want the rats to be too

Oxbow has a new formula (Garden Select) that I don't think has fish …. but some say their rats do not like it - I have never tried. Harlan Teklad 2014 does not have fish but not sure where it is available in the USA. I feed it to my rats

you can buy HT (now under a different name or names) from Mainely Rat Rescue
http://mainelyratrescue.org/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=48