hi all. three days ago my one rat had 6 babies and then yesterday my other rat had 13 babies. so this morning i went to give the rats food and water and check on the babies. but to mi suprise all the second rats babies wher gone:blowhead: and when i checked the first rats babies there they were all snugled up with the first rats babies:wavey:. so my question is do i separate them and put them back with they,r mom or leave them. thanks in advance.
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rats stealin babies
- Thread starter kingkong
- Start date
RickersRodents
New member
No, leave them alone the mommies are rather good at taking care of babies in general and will share the duties back and forth.
Buzzard
two corny
Yes leave them alone. Rats and mice will share the load of raising the babies. Even male mice and rats will keep them warm when the moms need a break. I also like raising the fat content of the food right after moms give birth. A few sunflower seeds and a little dairy helps them produce milk without losing to much weight. as the babies get bigger 2-3 week I pull back the fatty content so that the moms wont be overweight when you wean the little ones.
Justin Guyer
New member
I agree. I see this same thing happen in my rodent cages when there is more than one mother with babies. Keep an eye on them and observe their behaviors....it's really cool to see how the mothers share responsibilities and combine their litters.
When we were raising our own mice, we had 2 moms that kept doing this. It was funny and none of the babies got hurt, but each time one mom stepped away from her pile, the other mom was dragging them back to her hide and when the mom realized what was going on, she's start carrying babies back to her hide as fast as they were leaving, but eventually they'd split the babies in half for the night and the next day start again until the babies started moving, then they continued going from mom to mom... so much love! Mice were fun to watch!
Frank the snake
New member
They love it! My mice do this every time. They love being able to take a break and share the load. Don't move them!! Stress will make them eat their babies. Also, I never keep the male with the babies. I have had 3 different males chow down every time they were able. This last time just happened because the mom had her's about a week before I was expecting it. Oops! I just happened to catch it. In the event of taking the male out, the mom got stressed and started eating on the babies too. I took the babies out (don't touch or get your smell on them) and put them in with two other moms who have young fuzzies, and the two took the rest of the babies in. I fed the bloody ones to Frank. He hadn't eaten a pinkie in almost a year!