pregnant rat only had 3 babies

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Ratcell

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It's been around 2 hours (I think I woke up to her giving birth to her second baby) and she hasn't had more. She's on the younger side so maybe this explains it but she only had 3 pups. She seems healthy and is behaving fine, the other babies seem healthy and she is taking care of them but I'm worried she's having complications. She was pretty fat/chunky while pregnant and it seems weird to only have 3 if she was so fat. How realistic is it that she is fine? I don't want to ignore her but I also don't have a vet available (the only place near me who takes rats is full/not taking more clients) and I don't have time to take her in. That being said if its really bad/very likely that she is having complications I'll try to find someone who will take her/help her.
 
How old is she? My mama rat was around 4ish months old and had 16 babies. Has it been 2 hours since she’s had a baby or 2 hours since she started? Mine had babies over a 2-4 hour period as far as I remember and there were fairly long breaks in between some of them. I think if she isn’t even trying to push anymore, she might not be having any more.
 
How old is she? My mama rat was around 4ish months old and had 16 babies. Has it been 2 hours since she’s had a baby or 2 hours since she started? Mine had babies over a 2-4 hour period as far as I remember and there were fairly long breaks in between some of them. I think if she isn’t even trying to push anymore, she might not be having any more.
I'm not entirely sure since the pet store person had no idea but if I had to guess based on owning other rats, she's about medium sized. So not fully grown but at the same time she isn't 5 weeks or anything. I woke up to her with 2 babies at 9:20 and its 11:42 now when I'm posting this. She's sleeping right now and isn't having contractions. I hope she is okay I don't want to push her to the side/ignore it if she is having problems. She's not bleeding anymore at least.
 
I wasn’t sure exactly how old my girl was either, but I guessed based on the estimated age of one of my males when I got him. Do you have any other rats that you can compare her age to? Do you know what her weight is or what it was before she had the babies?
 
I wasn’t sure exactly how old my girl was either, but I guessed based on the estimated age of one of my males when I got him. Do you have any other rats that you can compare her age to? Do you know what her weight is or what it was before she had the babies?
I don't know her weight (don't have a scale small enough) and shes with her sister but I don't know her sisters age.
 
Can you call the vet and tell them this information.
It is possible that she only had 3 babies, it is also possible that there are dead babies inside of her
Average litter size is 12 to 14 babies, but rats can have 2 to 26 babies in a litter

Here is a link http://ratguide.com/breeding/postpartum/maternal_behaviors.php

Other then the small litter size, is there anything that would make you think that she is having complications?
 
Can you call the vet and tell them this information.
It is possible that she only had 3 babies, it is also possible that there are dead babies inside of her
Average litter size is 12 to 14 babies, but rats can have 2 to 26 babies in a litter

Here is a link http://ratguide.com/breeding/postpartum/maternal_behaviors.php

Other then the small litter size, is there anything that would make you think that she is having complications?
Not really other than the small liter size. She is acting normal, is pretty active and isn't bleeding at all or anything. I called the vet and left them a message but they haven't responded yet. Thankfully the one I'm going to is a petvet for odd pets and they work with a lot of rats.
 
3 surviving babies isn't too worrying, especially as she's nursing them and seems fine and normal. She may have reabsorbed the other fetuses, had stillborns (and took care of them). I had one tiny girl grow big and fat (gained 100 g of growth and pregnancy weight), had 1 stillborn, 1 live pup that didn't live more than 36 hrs. Mom was just a big rat the rest of her life.
 
Is there an update? My mama had just 2 babies yesterday afternoon while I was away. I didn't notice the babies until I got home around 4:00. I checked in on her before I left the house at 10:00 and she hadn't had them yet. She had a pretty large belly, so I was certain that she was going to have a large litter. She is not bleeding nor having contractions. She has been taking care of them like normal, but she still looks to be kinda big. She's been acting perfectly normal and even came out of the cage once last night so I was able to feel her abdomen. It didn't feel like there were anymore babies in there. I was just certain that she would have a large litter. I'm concerned because this is her 2nd litter. Her first was about 3 months ago. Again, I had to leave the house that day and saw that she was having contractions before I left so I let her be. When I came home, she had apparently given birth due to the blood but I never found any babies. She was housed with her sister, so I feared that she had killed them or maybe they were stillborn. I have her housed separately this time around. We unfortunately do not have any vets around here that see rats.
 
Is there an update? My mama had just 2 babies yesterday afternoon while I was away. I didn't notice the babies until I got home around 4:00. I checked in on her before I left the house at 10:00 and she hadn't had them yet. She had a pretty large belly, so I was certain that she was going to have a large litter. She is not bleeding nor having contractions. She has been taking care of them like normal, but she still looks to be kinda big. She's been acting perfectly normal and even came out of the cage once last night so I was able to feel her abdomen. It didn't feel like there were anymore babies in there. I was just certain that she would have a large litter. I'm concerned because this is her 2nd litter. Her first was about 3 months ago. Again, I had to leave the house that day and saw that she was having contractions before I left so I let her be. When I came home, she had apparently given birth due to the blood but I never found any babies. She was housed with her sister, so I feared that she had killed them or maybe they were stillborn. I have her housed separately this time around. We unfortunately do not have any vets around here that see rats.
My rat seems healthy now, though I'm taking her to the vet again soon with her babies just to do a checkup.
 
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