Oops babies

Question
Due to household/traveling issues, I had to house my girl and boy together not quite a month ago for a couple of days. While I had my fingers crossed against it, sure enough, my girl got pregnant. While I have had pet rats in the past before I've never bred them and was never intending to. In fact, I'm partial to males and only have my girl because someone else didn't want her anymore. Well, enough complaining. Mom got through the pregnancy beautifully though her litter seems small according to what I've read - 6 pups? They were born last night starting at midnight and all of them popped out within the next hour. Easy labor, beautiful babies, Mom seemed relieved!! I'm having a hard time finding stuff about what I should do to help her out, how and when I should be handling the babies, what Mom should be eating, etc. Any suggestions? Any good websites? For the most part, all I can find are websites that say "don't breed your rats! It's hard and you don't know what you're doing!" Well, I don't know what I'm doing and I need help! I've found a bit here and there and she's been a very easy mama so far (knock on wood) but I want to make sure that, now I've seen her through the pregnancy, her pups get the right sort of attention they need. Thanks for anything you can offer! ~Dani

Answer
Hi Dani;

Well, rats are pretty easy keepers. Kudos for learning all you can, and I'm glad to see this wasn't really an intentional thing -- but keep that in mind next time you're running low on space ;) Don't panic, they're easy to raise.

First of all, make sure mama is on a good diet. No store bought hamster/mouse food; rats are a bit more complex than that. I prefer to modify the Suebee's Rat Diet (you can google it) and toss in some goodies that are different every week. I couple my mix with a lab block thats easy to find, such as Mazuri brand, or even just a dog food kibble that has very little junk and absolutely no avocado in it (and 20% or less of protein). Feed her as much as she wants. Top off her dish daily. Make sure she's on a nice, absorbant and soft bedding such as carefresh or cell sorb (even aspen is fine -- remember, no pine or cedar).

At two weeks old, babies will open their eyes and begin toddling. Baby-proof your cage by making sure you absolutely positively cannot get two fingers on end through the bars, preferably less than a penny's height of space between bars.

At 5 weeks old, you need to wean babies and take them away from Mom. If you plan on keeping a girl, she can stay with her mama, but boys should not be kept in with Mama any later than 6 weeks - because at that point, guess what! Mom can get pregnant again!

Male and female are easily distinguishable by the time they're about 3 1/2 weeks old. Boys, obviously; are the ones with testicles. Even at only a few days old, if you google "sexing baby rats", you can find some excellent pictures to help you determine male from female. I'm wrong from time to time, but once you've figured it out, its pretty easy.

Handling the babies is absolutely crucial - do it as much as Mom will let you! Sometimes parents are a bit hostile (I have one doe right now who won't let me within a foot of her nest), so watch your fingers. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly to avoid dirtying up the babies or upsetting mama, and when they're just pinkies, I avoid hand lotions and such just to keep from gumming up their pores. I check each baby over as often as I can to be sure they're doing well and thriving. As they get older, Mom will relax more and give you more and more time to mess with her infants. As they reach about 2 to 3 weeks old, they'll start eating the same things she does, and will need a bowl they can climb in and out of and the water bottle will need to be lowered so they can reach it.

Hope that helps some!