Baby Rats-Orphaned

Question
I work at a pet store, and we had :( a momma rat with two kits. Our fish guy was helping a customer and they needed a rat to feed to a snake...so what does the fish guy do....he takes the momma rat and gives it to the customer. Now I have the two kits at home. They are about 3 weeks old. They are starting to nibble on their food, but I am not quit sure exactly what else to do. I have been reading up on using soy baby formula or kitten formula, and have even heard about having a shallow dish with warm milk and a little bread. . . . any advice would be extremely helpful for these poor kits. I am not sure how rough kits usually play either.....or it its a seperation anxiety thing.... please email me asap...

leah

Answer
Hi Leah

Good news!! Most lab rat babies are removed from mom around 3 weeks old so they should do just fine. Be sure they can drink from the water bottle nipple and also, you can feed them a good healthy rodent/lab block made for rats by Mazuri (from pet stores) although I prefer Harlan teklad brand, Mazuri is easier to find in a pet store. You can wet the pellets with water a little bit first so it is easier to chew for them. I would also continue to feed them the soy formula through a dropper or syringe mainly for bonding and also to teach them to get used to humans. This way they wont be shy like so many pet store rats are.
Are you planning on keeping them? They should NOT be put back for feeders now...it wouldn't be fair to them. I can help you find a place to that will take them and adopt them if you are not keeping them but meantime, you need to be prepared to separate them because male and female rats are sexually active at around 5 weeks old and the female can indeed become pregnant. Its a little hard to check their sex if your a novice so I can help you if you need it by telling you what to look for since their testicles are so small. However, at this age, they should be pretty much "in place" and it should be obvious who is who by now :-)

As for playing wrestling? That is the best part of watching ratlets when they are young!  They LIVE for chasing each other and rolling, popcorning all around (a rat lovers way of explaining how they act all silly and energetic and bouncy!! LOL!!) they pin each other down, wrestle, squeak, chase, roll all over the place till they finally fall asleep, totally exhausted, sometimes still in the same spot and still tangled up with the other ratlets.  LOL  That is when its worth grabbing the digital camera and taking picture after picture. They grow up before a blink of an eye!!  I bet you will be hooked soon if your not already hooked on them. They truly are wonderful little pets, like a tiny dog with a super long tail!  

Anyhow, I know you asked for me to email you ASAP but on this site, they send us the questions and we do not have access to your personal email address so I am not able to email you unless you provide me with your email address.
You can reach me here through a follow up if you have more questions or write me at Sandyscrittercity@yahoo.com

Good luck and thanks for taking care of the little vermin!!           

Regards

Sandy