This article is from the WSSF 2017 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Jennifir Albino, PA, Facebook
Q My father bought my kids a female rat and we have had her for about 2 weeks. I went to clean the cage and there were babies in there! Please help. I don’t know what to do with newborn babies.

A Mom will take care of the kids, you just need to provide extra nutrition and protein to her diet as a supplement (small amounts each day, you don’t have to give all of these suggested items every day), i.e. cat/dog kibble, scrambled eggs, nutrition drink, peanut butter or sweet potato dog biscuits (Buddy Biscuits are a favorite with my rats; 1 normal size biscuit per day), 1 tree nut in the shell each day until the kids open their eyes (hazelnut, Brazil nut, almond, walnut), cooked fish, avocado, etc., as well as the main diet of a high-quality lab block and plenty of fresh water in a bottle.

Mom will appreciate some nesting material in the form of torn up paper napkins or shredded paper. She should be in a non-wire cage as the babies could get through the wire or stuck in it. Also, the cage should have no shelves or hammocks as mom may try to move the babies up on a shelf or in a hammock that they could then fall off/out of. She does not need a house and may become overly protective if given one (the babies could also become injured/killed if the house were to get on top of them, same with a food bowl or wheel), so no furniture in the cage. The cage should be in a quiet area.

Babies can be handled from birth—take mom out and put her somewhere else with a treat like a dog biscuit or other yummy treat (she will look forward to this) while you are checking out the kids. Eyes open at 14 days. Mom will nurse 4–5 weeks (on average). Male kids can be taken out at 5–6 weeks. Ones you don’t keep can go to new homes at 6 weeks (sold in same sex pairs or trios so they have the companionship from another rat that is vital; they are not solitary creatures like Syrian hamsters).

We have several articles to help answer your questions along with a couple from the NFRS web site:

• Main chapter from the AFRMA Breeding Book
• A Litter Bit of Fun: Tinker’s First Litter
• Aggressive Female
• Nutritional Requirements in Rats
• Breeding Rats
• Advice for the Novice Breeder
• Rat Breeding: Part 1 Biology

If this is all too much, then see about returning the rat. If you keep mom and go through this experience, then keep at least two of her daughters so she has company and the kittens have each other as a playmate (play is extremely important to rats).

Update: She has two other females in the cage with her also. The other two are actually cuddling with the momma. They don’t bother the litter from what I see. But I am buying a second cage regardless because it looks like two of the babies are male, so until I find them homes, I know I need to separate them later to prevent future litters.

Ideally, we recommend females be by themselves when rearing a litter. If the other two females are not hindering with the babies (trying to have them for themselves and moving them to their own nest), then it would be OK to leave them together but the main issue is the cage (mom moving the kids up high and them falling) along with the stuff in it, so it would be best if mom was in a single-level cage to raise her kids in.

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