Sweetie & The Sugahs...Peecs 11/09

[lilspaz68]

Once I got a really good feel of little Sweetie I realized those babies are coming soon. L Vanessa suspected but I was sure we had awhile :doh: They are moving low down in her belly. You get fooled by the belly but then you realize how tiny she is that she does have one very preggy belly.

These rats are much younger than 8 months...I would say a malnourished stunted 4-5 months (IF we count that Sweetie had a prior litter). BUT I guess the word stunted is definitely wrong to use in this case, they are beautiful little happy rats. A bit nervous but they all really want to love someone. Very little effort to make these guys practically bomb-proof. I re-intro'd the sweet brother back to his PEW brothers, completely uneventful. I found him cuddled up to one of them on the shelf. Poor Sweetie is confused, where is her big Brother??? :sad-p:

I weighed them all and am still in some shock.
The brother Dexter is 240 grams
Leon the bigger PEW is 221 grams
Lucas the tiny shyer PEW is 202 grams
Sweetie even with her baby weight is only 196 grams.

Dexter

Leon

Lucas does NOT dangle :lol:

“Leon, hide me!!”

And last but never least…Sweetie

Someone found the fleece box

 

[Bronwyn]

Wow, yeah she's going to have them soon. Man. I hope the babies are alright and it's a tiny litter! They're all adorable things.

 

[Dahlas]

They must be tiny. My little Piper is 240 grams....and she is so small. There isn't anything to her when you pick her up. I can't imagine how small little Sweetie must be.....only 186 grams and that is with a pregnant belly :shock:
I hope everything is okay with the babies......Give them all cuddles and kisses from me....

 

[mamarat]

That's one cute little momma. The bros are gorgeous too. :heart:

 

[DazzleMe]

Oh Shelagh those are some teensy tiny little ratlets. I certainly hope they quickly thrive on your never-ending TLC! Lots of gentle hugs going their way. Good luck mama rat!

-Melina

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

Poor, Sweetie. She is so tiny and having babies, just awful. It just kills me how ignorant people are about animals in general. You are so awesome for taking them in and caring for these babies. If I lived closer I would go sling dog poo on the prevoius owners porch, just for some self satisfaction! Know what I mean, you clean up her mess so she can clean up my mess.

 

[Shelley]

Oh wow - her baby belly looks much bigger than this morning :shock:

 

[Happi Wolf]

Sending good thoughts your way for healthy baby ratties and that Sweetie pulls through fine.

 

[lilspaz68]

Oh wow - her baby belly looks much bigger than this morning :shock:

I will weigh her tomorrow and see how much she gained overnight LOL

 

[Shelley]

Shelagh, is it definite at this point she can't be spayed?

 

[lilspaz68]

Shelagh, is it definite at this point she can't be spayed?

Yes. The farther along a ratgirl is in her pregnancy the more the uterus is engorged with blood making it more dangerous for the mom-to-be to go through the e-spay. I would say this wee one is going to have her babies in the next 2 days. I thought we had a week or so which would've been fine. The woman obviously put Dexter back earlier than she said :redhot:

 

[Shelley]

Oh poop.. That sucks, she didn't look very big at all when I got her on Thursday, but the good diet over the past day and a half probably made the world of difference in boosting the bubs growth. I'll wait and see - may be able to adopt two baby girls later on. Really depends what happens with my job since I'm quitting Sept. 1st.

 

[Godmother]

They are sweeties. Boy that tiny girl looks pregnant. And I thought my Hilda was tiny at 280 g!

Looking forward to baby pictures! Kisses and banana mash to little mama and her friends.

 

[Dewi]

Shelagh, is it definite at this point she can't be spayed?

Yes. The farther along a ratgirl is in her pregnancy the more the uterus is engorged with blood making it more dangerous for the mom-to-be to go through the e-spay. I would say this wee one is going to have her babies in the next 2 days. I thought we had a week or so which would've been fine. The woman obviously put Dexter back earlier than she said :redhot:

And even if she could safetly get speyed at this stage, the foetus are very developed so it would be the equivalent of having new born pinkies PTS, which I can't imagine many rat lovers would be comfortable with.

Shelagh is this a new rescue?

 

[user 78]

A female rat as malnourished, young, and abused as Sweetie is has no business having a litter. I don't care how far along she is. I would gladly spare her this by going ahead with the E-Spay if Dr. Munn was more confident of the outcome. Honestly, if *any* rat mother came through my doors in this sort of condition, I'd have them spayed immediately. There are more than enough rats out there already needing homes, and a rat in this condition has no reason to be going through this.

You can see Sweetie and her brothers' stories here : viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6306

 

[lilspaz68]

If Dr Munn would've done it, I would've e-spayed but at this point it was too dangerous...that you cannot risk

 

[lilspaz68]

Well I woke up this morning, listened and then opened Sweeties cage. She popped her head out and nipped me! LOL

The birth seems to have gone very easily (thank god, I had trouble sleeping worrying about her tiny malnourished body doing this work!), and we have 8 little bubs this morning :bunnydance:

She seems more nervous than most that I will take away her babies from her, so it will take some time before she can trust her babies can stay with her until they are weaned.

She never made a nest, and I had to pile soft thick TP over them. No milkbands so I am praying they were just born. She was licking butts like a good ‘un though

Sweetie has deflated!

She did the warning nips to the hand as I had to fix up her cage a little. I had to fasten up the ramp a little (she still likes to sit up there instead of on her bubs :roll: and removed the waterbowl and replaced it with a waterbottle (cannot have drowned bubs :sad-p

Then she popped up to the cage door and I picked her up. She lay in my lap getting stroked like last night and seemed very relaxed. I weighed her quickly, and she is 166 grams now :shock:

Then I popped her in the fleece box and did a proper check.
We have 3 dark eyed babies, and 5 light eyes…1 is a teeny runt that javakittie has named Zotz already, since no ratbabies shall be unnamed if they have a chance at passing.

I put a penny beside them for comparison (don’t worry they were out a total of a minute)

A dark-eyed baby

A light-eyed baby

and the wee active runt Zotz

When I put Sweetie back in she came running back as if to say “Look what I did!!!!”

And now we pray to the Milk Gods!

 

[Dahlas]

Oh they are beautiful...hopefully the all make it. I am praying hard.

 

[Vanessa]

Thank you Sweetie, for not giving birth in my car yesterday and holding off until everything was set up for you.
Hope they do well.

 

[lilspaz68]

Hey Vanessa, we should suggest pregnant women who want to "shake things loose" should go for a drive with you...you could make a bundle! :laugh4: