I have a pregnant rat, who also has a companion rat living with her, which is her sister. I was wondering when the babies are born do they need to be seperated?
They need to be separated before she gives birth. There is a chance of the sister
'baby-stealing" which can end up with babies injured or killed...it's not worth it. Put your soon-to-be- mom into her maternity cage and let them have Out time together. Do you have a proper maternity cage?
Yes, I went on google and found some information about a good cage for her. I will make sure to seperate them! We can see the babies moving inside of her, it's really interesting! Lol. Thanks for your help!!
Be sure to double check information found through Google. Sometimes the first website you find doesn't have the best information, so check a few different ones. Plus you can search the forums here and find tons of great information
Good luck with the (soon to be) babies! And remember to post pictures!
I don't want to cause any harm or make anyone mad, but I think it depends a lot on the individuals. Some animals will be harmful to another's babies, but some will be not only gentle but helpful.
Personally I would leave them together as long as I could be there (awake & watching) with them but I'd never leave them alone til I was certain 'auntie' was good with the babes and mom felt comfortable & accepting of her there. jmo.
This morning at 5 AM, I heard squeeking and awoke to find one baby born! One hour later she gave birth to 8 more, 9 in total! I took the sister out. I have no experience with that stuff, so I don't think I'll have a clue if she's hurting the babies or trying to help. What type of food should I feed to mama to make sure she is healthy enough to feed her babies?
give her scrambled eggs and baby cereal and stuff to give her a little more protein and she should do all the work for you i just went what your going through not too long ago but mine only had 2 babies. on the babies you should see milk tummies a white line like on there tummy that shows that mama is milking them and feeding them well also. make sure you have only 1 leveled cage with no hammocks or a wheel till a little later on so mama does not try to take babies to a level where they can fall off or a hammock where same thing. CongRATS
Babies are doing very well, their teeth are coming in! Once in a while they will do cleaning motions (like cleaning their heads), it's so cute!
Some pictures, when they were first born:
This is them now, they are also getting fur:
They are all black hooded, and their fur is nice and shiny and soft!
I also took a picture of mama's sister:
She LOVES to wrestle with my hand, and then she will 'skip' away, and then come running back for more! She also play nips, it's really really cute!