Birthing problems

[jorats]

More and more, I've been reading about birthing problems. I'd like people to share their stories here.

-I've been communicating with a young girl on YouTube. She breeds indiscriminately and recently her doe gave birth to 5 babies and only 1 survived. The young girl was keeping her cage on a heating pad and thought maybe the babies got too hot. I told her I wasn't sure but am now trying to convince her not to breed.
When putting rat A with rat B... you have to be ready for the consequences. It's easy to say, oh well, those babies died, it was for the best... but those babies went through pain and suffering before dying, not to mention mom's pain of giving birth.
Giving birth is no picnic and it's not up to us to force that on any living being.

-I also remember reading where a lady thought her two females were pregnant when in fact they were not. They had developed huge tumors. By the time she realized that it was no pregnancy it was too late for those girls.

-I knew this lady who "needed" to experience the miracle of birth through her rats. So she bred her rats. A beautiful litter was born, all the right colors and markings and everyone wanted some... so they were adopted out, only to find out later how a couple had been mistreated and another few were sent outside in the cold Saskatchewan winter. This lady was heartbroken and those babies suffered incredibly.

-A little momma in a French rattery was pregnant under the watchful eye of a seasoned breeder, one that is considered very knowledgeable. Little momma was approaching her due date, remained cheerful and loving until the day came and the babies were stuck in the canals. Little momma was in pain for hours before she and her babies died.

I'd like to sticky this thread and hope to god before people breed they will take the time to read this.

 

[Godmother]

Good idea to do this. If it would make anyone think twice, it's worthwhile.

 

[Argent]

I've read so many birthing horror stories on Fancy Rats UK. Even well thought out and planned pregnancies can go so very wrong. One that sticks in my mind was a planned pregnancy, where the doe appeared fine the whole time til her owner came home to find her dead with a massively overgrown baby stuck halfway, also dead.

There are other who've experienced oversized or deformed babies too. It's not fair on the mommas, no matter how much someone 'means well'.

 

[Zooy]

Our one and only litter was from a pregnant store rat. (I was 4 hours away from them doing a co-op placement)
Popcorn gave birth to 8 beautiful babies. About 5 days after birth, she stopped drinking water so she stopped producing milk. One passed away and we were able to get her drinking again so her milk production started again. The babies were very scrawny. With that, we only adopted 2 out and kept the other 5. They have a very hard time keeping weight on and it's a struggle for us.

I would urge anyone who wants to breed not to. We will never ever raise a litter again, it was painful, it kept both of us awake at night.

 

[LA]

Everyone loves babies, they are so cute, that is understandable. But many or most don't think of the problems of what could happen. What is even better then breeding if you really want to care for babies is look on the forum for pregnant mothers that are in need of a good home. The damage is already done.