Abby Had Babies, I Need Some Help

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C

Cait

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
3,510
Location
Pasadena, CA
Hey peeps. Last night I was cleaning cages and noticed that Abby had had a baby. It was alive, and it was eeping, and then she ate it. I thought that was all there'd be, and I was in chat with bunches and bunches of people for two hours while she delivered two more, the second one was dead and I took it away immediately after she had it, then awhile later there was another, alive, and I left it.

Turns out the second one was NOT dead, and in fact was breathing! It even gave me a tiny eep as I was deciding what to do.

I put him back in with the other baby. Abby had them in a hammock (this was not a planned maternity cage) so I put them back there. I figured she'd eat them, something... I put a hot water bottle in there and watched from afar, she simply ignored them all night. This morning I woke up and both babies were still alive, and Abby clear on the other side. She wants no part of being a mommy.

I think I panicked, because I took them out and away from her, and they've been with me all day at work. I managed to get ahold of some formula (soy people formula) and about 3 different types of syringes to feed them. I only went on what I knew or had thought I remembered, but I need you guys' help.

I know that I need to feed them every 2-3 hours, and I've been doing that. I can't get good milk bands, though. I've been stimulating them to go to the potty, and the one has been doing it, the one I thought was dead, and he's also been a good eater. The other one, the smaller one, has not been at it as well. They've been on a hot waterbottle all day, with fleece and TP pieces.

The best techinique I have so far for feeding is to wet a Q-tip and have them suck on it, wetting it with formula when it needs it. It seems to be working for the bigger one, but the smaller one seems to prefer it dripped from a syringe.

They're both very strong and very LOUD, especially that little one, who I do believe is a girl.

I know I should have probably left them alone... But they'd been in with her for 12 hours, and she hadn't even bothered to finish cleaning them off!!

I'll add on more about how she was acting during the delivery and labor (ODDLY, is all I'll say for now) but I have to go feed them. I'll add more as soon as I do that.
 
you need to find a nursing mom to adopt them. Taking care of wee ones from birth is incredibly difficult. If little momma hasn't fed them then the bubs won't have her antibody-filled colostrum...and will be susceptible to infections, etc...

I am sorry Cait, glad to hear 2 babies made it. How big is the cage? I have heard of people putting reluctant moms into tiny cages to make them be close and take care of their babies. how big is this cage? You need to remove that hammock asap as well.
 
Cait-
You are doing the best you can. I know it is hard, but we are here cheering you and those babies on!!!!

I wish you the best of luck and those babies will be in my prayers!!!!

HUGE hugs :hugs:
 
The little girl died. I went to go feed them and she was gone.

The little boy is still alive, but he's quiet. But I guess baby rats have to sleep sometime... I just bothered him and he eeped at me. He has a milk band. His name is Bean. He looks like a little pink jelly bean... That was the other's name, Jelly.

I am trying to find a lactating rat around here, but to no avail. I called the petstores in Junction City, Wamego, Manhattan, and Topeka. None. I hate wishing for a feeder breeder to show up, but I am.

Shelagh is going to post on Goosemoose for me; hopefully someone is in the area.

I'm trying very, VERY hard to stay hopeful but I don't think it's going to pan out in favor of the little guy. I know it's not going to.

I'm so angry, and so hurt and angry!! Why do things like this happen? Why did nature or God or whatever deal this baby rat the most craptastic life ever and the worst mom ever? He's not going to have a chance to do ANYTHING, not give ratty kisses or boggle or brux or climb cage walls, or eat his first solid foods, or hand wrestle, or pee on my stuff, or chew my clothes, or steal treats from his cagemates, or marinate in a hammock, nothing! He gets nothing! He didn't even get to start life.

I hate that petstore lady!! I HATE HER! This is all of her fault! She blinded Abby; whether that made her crazy or she was already this way I don't know. She left Martin with Abby, she left them even after they'd had a litter and she ate them! She asked me to take her and I did out of the kindness of my heart and my love for rats and I get this! I get to clean up her stupid mess and watch three babies die. She did this to them!

I hate that I can't do anything, I hate hearing there is nothing to do but wait for him to die. I'm not stupid, I know that. I KNOW. I hate knowing and I hate being so freaking powerless! It's the worst feeling in the world and it kills me to have to resign to not doing anything besides waiting.

If anything I learned is that a) I am not cut out for rescuing rats, and I'm not doing it any more. EVER. and b) Nature sucks it HARD.
 
I'm so sorry that you have to go through this, that Abby has to go through this, and the babies have to go through this.

*hug hug hug*
 
awww, huny, I just got your PM, and i'm so sorry this is happening...
I wish there was something I could do, or say th at could help....

:hugs: :hugs: :hugs:
You're doing all you can do, i'll be thinking of you and little Bean...
:heart: :heart: :heart:
 
don't beat yourself up too hard about it. bean and jelly and even the unnamed baby had more a chance with you then anywhere else. the deck is stacked against them and was too much for two of them, but it is no reflection of your efforts. if it was abby would have been the perfect mother and miraculously been able to see again at your very touch.

you are doing everything that you can for these fellas. more then they had before by leaps and bounds and then a few more. all you can do is try and that you are most certainly doing. and if at the end none of the babies can stay, if bean crosses over to, they are still remembered, a life eternal. they will not be forgotten and their short lives will not be in vain. and even though the lives were very short, even for that time they were loved. whether the body can tell that or not at that age means nothing. the soul knows and it remembers and it will carry that with it through to the next life and the next...

you are doing all you can for them, there is nothing more anyone can expect. and you feel for them, that's something they will carry on with them. and you will remember them and so they will live on forever, maybe the next time around they will get to enjoy some of the fun stuff in life too.

don't give up all hope, its a long shot, and you know that, but people have made it work in the past. keep up the good fight, we will be here for as much as we can every step of the way.
 
:hugs: I'm so sorry Cait! It really is that pet store woman’s fault! People can be such immoral, disgusting, psychopathic #^@#@! The poor rats, but they have you and you are there for them and doing a great job. Does little Bean seem uncomfortable?

Rescuing is emotionally draining, but personally enriching in multiple ways. And it sure does make a person soul search for answers, although the answers may not be nice and candy coated. Just do what you can handle as far as rescuing goes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you’re a great person Cait.
 
Aw Cait, you poor thing :cry3:
Cait said:
If anything I learned is that a) I am not cut out for rescuing rats, and I'm not doing it any more. EVER. and b) Nature sucks it HARD.
Click to expand...
I don't know how I'd handle this, I say with all honesty it wouldn't be as well as you're doing it tho. (Even your meltdown is just one line girl!) Even tho all the wrong things are happening You're doing all the right things. In hindsight you'll look at Abby and Martin and realize that they are still living and breathing because of you.
And you'll look in the mirror and see that you don't look anything like God and you are not Him. But you are Cait, the one that Martin sees every time he gets good food or a clean cage, and the one that Abby 'sees' when she feels a warm loving embrace.
 
*hugs everyone* I love you guys. I really, REALLY do.

Thank you for that link, Lauren!! I am reading and it's providing a lot of insight to the things Bean does.

Speaking of Bean... He's a trooper, eating and pooing and peeing up a storm. I'll load some pics tonight of him, and of dear Jelly.
 
:)

Jelly and The Bean
IMG_7460.jpg


Jelly and Bean
IMG_7462.jpg


Jelly
IMG_7463.jpg


IMG_7464.jpg


The Bean
IMG_7465.jpg


IMG_7466.jpg


This is how Abby left them. Bean on the left, Jelly on the right. Bean was stuck like that because she never cleaned him off and goo dried on him. :( But now he's good, and clean. :heart:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/ ... G_7455.jpg
 

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