Account of a Rescue and Her Litter! Day 25 pics & vid NE

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Well I woke up this morning to a huge nest made in the cage. She had scooped ALL of the carefresh into one corner of her cage and then intricately laced in her fleece that I had given her. I was going to get a picture but decided I would do that later. I then went out shopping with my good friend's daughter to help them pick out her prom dress. When I got home I checked on her and heard the distinct chirping of baby erasers! WE HAVE PINKIES! I am not sure if she is done giving birth yet or if she just got done but she is breathing a bit heavy and her eyes are really tired looking. She is extremely protective of her nest, cage, and babies so I don't want to disturb her at all right now. I think I will wait until it is time to give her some dinner tonight and then I will rifile through the nest and see what we have and also snap a few quick photos.
 
Wow, the timing was perfect. And you sure knew how to provide ideal nesting materials. Good thing she had the high-protein supper last night to give her the energy.

:congrats: Congratulations to you and the sweet mama! Looking forward to photos of the little ones. :heart:
 
Alrighty so I noticed that momma was getting a tad restless so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to coax her away from the babies and check them out. Thumbelina is a very protective mommy. Earlier today before she ever had the babies my husband tried to reach in and pet her and she lunged at him. As he pulled away she jumped a good foot in the air trying to get him out of her cage. I have figured out that in order to handle her I have to lay a thick hammock over the top of her and pick her up that way. Once she is out and away from the babies and the cage she lets me handle her just fine.

So after putting her in a separate temp cage for a moment I took a peek. We have a total of 8 babies. However, one of the babies was dead in the nest. I am not sure if it was still born or if it just didn't make it. So we have 7 viable babies. Her prior litter was 9.

They all have good milk bellies. One of the babies was kind of chilly to the touch so I rubbed him a bit trying to warm him up and he let out a healthy squeak. So we will keep out fingers crossed that he was just momentarily chilled and will be OK.

So I quickly snapped a few photos and got them back into the nest and momma back on top of them. Total time of disturbance was max 3 min.

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Thumbelina is so beautiful! I love the photo of the baby near to the quarter, looking up quizzically. You can see the little face in such detail.

Poor Thumbelina, it must have been hard for her finding one of the babies dead. What's the best thing to do in such a case, remove the dead one or let her do it?
 
Thank you everyone for the compliments on Thumbelina. She is a very pretty girl! We really don't get many beige rats around here so she is a real treat.

As for the baby that did not make it she still had it in the nest. However, I think she may have been getting ready to sort them out as when I went to check on her she did have one baby out of the nest and was getting ready to pick up another baby. I am sure she would have either put the baby on the other side of the cage and buried it or she would have disposed of it herself.

In this case since I discovered the baby I went ahead and took it from her. The baby has been placed in a tiny ring box and will be buried this spring with the rest of my rats that have passed on over the winter.

Staci
 
Hey Staci, your Thumbelina is a fawn not a beige...a really deep gorgeous fawn with big beautiful eyes...she's gonna have some beautiful bubs when they grow up and stop looking like pink grubs with arms :D

Good job girls!!!!
 
FAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kept trying to think of that all weekend. I knew beige wasn't right but I couldn't think of the right name and I was being too lazy to go look it up LOL

Thank you Shelagh for the correction! :wink:
 
yay!!! Little pink erasers :lol: congrats to your girl :D she looks like a good mama :) I'm sorry about the loss but I hope the others will be big and strong with lots of photo ops :D
 

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