baby wood rats

Question
While remodeling a very old wood house we found 3 baby wood rats (almost newborns. they fell out of the ceiling and thier nest was destroyed. We tried to give them back to the mother, but she ran into the woods and didn`t return. I`ve been giving them soy baby formula out of an eye dropper, but they want a nipple and I can`t find one small enough. Is there a rescue in Mississippi that will take them? They are so precious! I NEED HELP! If I advertise for someone to help, they will end up being snake food for some idiot!!

Answer
Sindie

Its almost impossible to keep newborn rats alive if their eyes are not open.  How long did you wait to see if Mom returned?  Rats are great mothers, she may have come back looking later for them.
They need kept really warm and their genitals need stimulated with warm water to get them to urinate and defacate or the toxins will back up and kill them in hours. You need to contact a wild life rehab or an exotic vet that may give you names of someone locally that will help.

Meanwhile, if you keep them warm and safe and use baby soy formula and a nursing nipple for kittens found at pet stores and let them suck it from the side of their mouth slowly, they should take it for now.

Here is a link that will tell you how to care for them:

http://ratfanclub.org/orphans.html

I still suggest to call an exotic vet in the morning for names of wild life rehabs. Please let me know how it goes....