socializing babies

[spookie.cookie]

hey everyone:

i need your opinion and advice on this!

my rat has given birth to 9 bubs and they are 1 week old. i want to start socializing them so they will be tame and adoptable when older. my rat, spookie, is getting more aggressive, protective, and territorial each day. it's hard for me to socialize the bubs now compared to before. it's easy to get her out of her cage, but it's hard to keep her away from me when i socialize the babies. i have a bunk bed so i go up there to play with the bubs. she has been trying to climb/jump to get to her babies when i do. it's hard to socialize the babies without her bugging me! she is a great mum and does do things she does not normally do to protect her babies. if i put her on the bunk bed, she tries to get down even if she has to jump all the way down. i am worried of her safety too!

i tried locking her in the cage, but she becomes so frantic and tries to escape. if i leave her out of the cage, she runs around in a panic state!

am i doing this wrong? is it too early to socialize the babies? i try reading about socializing babies online, but i have not found anything good enough.

i want to know the steps from getting the mum out to putting the babies back without upsetting the mum! she is so smart and she knows her babies are missing! i want her to trust me enough, but i believe this behaviour is partly due to instinct. i am doing this outside our comfort level because i am anxious that she is anxious!

what i usually do is to let her free roam, take the babies and play with them. we are all in the same room, but i pick a place where i believe she cannot come to me to get the babies.

any opinions, advices, etc would be great!

thanks!

 

[lilangel]

i would also like to know more as i just got a mom girl with bubs only 2 but wondered info for it.

i do go see her everyday mind you the bubs are only 3 days old and i really do not touch them too much but others have said it is ok i do a little :wink: and i talk to mom all the time and keep her company as right now shes alone with her bubs. and she gets out time but she does not want out for very long.

 

[jorats]

What we used to do here is spread the babies with mom on the bed and touch them, hold them there. Mom seemed to not mind so much especially if we had yummy food for her. If the mom became too upset having her babies out, then we kept her in a cage where she couldn't see me with the babies.

 

[jennifervb]

It may be too soon for the babies to be socialized. I haven't had babies to socialize but it would seem to me that one week is too young to be taking them out of mom's realm.

Leave them in the cage and stroke them. Hold them in your hand, briefly, so that they get a feel for being held and then let mom take over again.

Ask yourself how comfortable you would be if you were the mother of a one week old baby and one of your family members wanted to take the baby to show off to the neighbors. I would have heart failure!

 

[lj]

What I have done is pulled the babies out and taken them into a different room. Gives mum a break from them. I held them and talked to them for 5-10 minutes at a time. I would do this a couple of times a day. When they got older, I started to increase the time out.

 

[sausage4ever]

What I did with Mielle (who had maternal aggression) was lock her in a temporary cage or let her free run while I touched her babies. She would act more stressed in the cage but I opted to put her there more often than not because if she found me with her babies she would run off with the bubs. I would just keep putting spookie in a cage while you touch her babies. It's only a temporary stress on Mom and I always hand the babies right back to Mom so she can put them in the nest.

 

[jorats]

Babies can be handled gently at a day old. The more the better.

 

[spookie.cookie]

i would also like to know more as i just got a mom girl with bubs only 2 but wondered info for it.

i do go see her everyday mind you the bubs are only 3 days old and i really do not touch them too much but others have said it is ok i do a little :wink: and i talk to mom all the time and keep her company as right now shes alone with her bubs. and she gets out time but she does not want out for very long.

oh neat- my rat WANTS out time a lot! i want her in because i can't play with her all night or leave her unsupervised :lol2: i made a mistake yesterday for watching cartoons while she ran around - she broke a zipper of my really expensive travel bag. i hope it is under warranty or still can be fixed... sniff :cry3:

 

[spookie.cookie]

thanks for the tips- i think i am going to lock her in another cage so that she doesn't go psycho in the current one and destroys it. it says chew proof, but you will never know lol