fallblossom
Senior Member
My seven month old rat had a litter of ten yesterday. Today the litter is down to nine. There is food and water available and I am providing extra protein (cooked beef, eggs, etc.). My rat mom's littermate who is four months old was left in the cage with her per a university's advice. They stated the littermate would help mom, however, the littermate is always sleeping alone and doesn't go in the nestbox.
I plan on taking the littermate out and placing her cage beside mom's cage so they don't loose touch with one another. In addition I'd like to mark the pups with Crayola markers at the base of their tales with numbers. However, now I am hestitant to touch the litter since once pup has been consumed. In order to socialize pups they are supposed to be handled daily, but maybe socializing them at two weeks of age might be better in this case.
Mom comes to me and will run down my shirt like she always does to say hello. She doesn't mind me being near her litter and is not aggressive toward me or her littermate. I don't know what is going on. It could be that she is a first time mom. I don't know but do know I don't want any of her baby's to suffer by being consumed alive. Imagine the suffering they go through as well as the betrayal.
Hopefully most will make it to adulthood---but at this point it is unknown.
I plan on taking the littermate out and placing her cage beside mom's cage so they don't loose touch with one another. In addition I'd like to mark the pups with Crayola markers at the base of their tales with numbers. However, now I am hestitant to touch the litter since once pup has been consumed. In order to socialize pups they are supposed to be handled daily, but maybe socializing them at two weeks of age might be better in this case.
Mom comes to me and will run down my shirt like she always does to say hello. She doesn't mind me being near her litter and is not aggressive toward me or her littermate. I don't know what is going on. It could be that she is a first time mom. I don't know but do know I don't want any of her baby's to suffer by being consumed alive. Imagine the suffering they go through as well as the betrayal.
Hopefully most will make it to adulthood---but at this point it is unknown.