pregnant pat

Question
my rat is pregnant and wanted to know if it will still be ok to keep the male in with her when she has had the babies, also i got told that after she has had the babies that you cant clean the cage out for a while. if this is so at what point can i clean the cage out.

Answer
NO.. remove the male immediately. Not only will they fight (sometimes to the death!), often one or both of the parents will kill the litter and your female will be immediately re-bred, which is horrible for her health. You need to separate them and keep them separated.. and please, have one or both of them altered to avoid future litters.. there are so many rats in the world that unless you're breeding for a specific color/type, it isn't worth it to keep bringing babies into the world.

You can clean out the cage as soon as Mama rat is comfortable letting you in the cage. For some its right off the bat, for others, you have to wait a week.