Don't mother rats share baby rearing?

So I'm new to this whole rat thing and 2 of my rats recently had babies. These are all first time parents by the way. I have a colony set up of 3 females and 2 males. A few days ago one female had about 15 babies. She's been doing great taking care of them. Well, this morning I woke up to bedding all over the place, outside the cage, and the other female had a few babies up on one of the ledges. Apparently she was trying to build a nest for them. The first female wont let any of the other females near her babies. They can go "peek", but not allowed to touch. I thought the females had/kept their babies in one area and took care of them together? I went ahead and put another "nest box" in for the second girl and moved the babies to it. But the second mom isn't going to them, that I have seen any way. If she doesn't go nurse them should I just put the babies with the first moms babies and see if she will take care of them? I am also fairly sure the 3rd female is also pregnant. Not sure if I'm doing this right or not. :awcrap: LOL Any advice would be helpful.

I don't know about rats, but I have moved pinkies from one mouse colony to a different one and they got adopted. If they can get at each other's nests they will sort it out by themselves, if you have them seperated you could try moving one pinky to the female that is being a good mom and see how she handles it before giving her the rest of them.

I don't touch them... if they're scattered all over the place I let them be, and one of the moms will get them, whether the biological or adopter. It takes a couple litters before they become communal. It kicks in after the first litter is moving around and will chase whatever teet is closest, lol.... When mine had their first litters, the moms were actually stealing each others babies. I'd look in and see newborns to fuzzys in each nest....

Thanks Jen and Joe. I'll just wait it out a couple days and see what happens. Maybe good mom will take over them all. LOL

rodents can either foster each others babies or kill them in order to take over nesting space. I like the ladder. I ove to see several moms take turns fostering pups. I find it funny when mom will take them back to her nest and then the others with her will remove just as fast to where they want to nest. Mice can act the same yet, it's a rare sight to see in gerbils though I have had them .

CaptBogart said:

I don't touch them... if they're scattered all over the place I let them be, and one of the moms will get them, whether the biological or adopter. It takes a couple litters before they become communal. It kicks in after the first litter is moving around and will chase whatever teet is closest, lol.... When mine had their first litters, the moms were actually stealing each others babies. I'd look in and see newborns to fuzzys in each nest....

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What he said.

Well, I guess I have no need to worry. The first mom has taken all the babies for her own. I'd hate to be her with that many mouths to feed. LOL:sidestep:

I would maybe replace your bad mom with a new female next time. I know that with my mice if I get a female who eats her babies/wont feed them the first litter, she'll normally do it again with her second litter. Never a good trait. So sometimes it's worth getting another instead.

As long as they aren't crowded, rats will eagerly share baby raising. Even older baby rats will help care for younger babies. I've found like most men, the male typically would rather lazily spend his time at the opposite end of the cage and does nothing to help care for the babies, although in my experience, the males are tolerant of the babies. I have 3 cages of rats, 2 or 3 females and one male in each cage. I wouldn't expect two adult males to get along although I haven't tried it either.

Mother rats will even foster mice pinks. I have sold lactating moms to lots of pet shops in my area to foster pinks till they sell.