And now Fuzzy - RIP little ones. I did the best I could.

[Spork]

These little bubs are beyond lucky that they made it into your care, I will continue to send "stay strong" vibes to the sweethearts, but I don't think they really need it if they have you to take care of them :cuddle:

 

[fenshae]

SQ - thank you so much! that is very helpful.

Got about .75ccs into both of 'em at dinner time. That's an estimation because a fair amount ended up on me instead. But I know they've gotta be getting SOME food into their bellies as they've always got poops and pees for me afterwards. And, y'know, they're not dead.

thanks for all the support guys We're not out of the woods yet so I'll happily take all the prayers and happy thoughts and good karma that can come my way lol. This is definitely a crazy new experience for me. I rescue boys only for a reason! yeesh.

*goes to watch some Smallville DVDs until feeding time again so i can nap after*

 

[Godmother]

You are doing an awesome job! Those little eepers sound like they are doing very well indeed.

 

[fenshae]

Possible bad news. the smaller one somehow managed to crawl inside of the heating pad cover. I don't know if it got stuck somehow or if maybe it burned its foot or what, but one of its little hindfeet is kind of purplish and swollen and she's not using it now she's crawling around just sort of dragging it. The forepaw on that side is kind of swollen and purply too. Aaarg. Double-wrapped the heating pad so that shouldn't happen again, but jeez that's so frustrating. Hopefully it goes away on its own, I'm really hoping it's just like a temporary swelling for lying on it or something, not burns or broken bones or something. They're so jellyfish-like right now it's hard to believe there ARE any bones in there.

Here's some pics. Sorry they're not better, but you can kind of see the discoloration/swelling. The limb is still mobile, she (I've somewhat arbitrarily decided they're girls. Will try to get up sexing shots later, they have the habit of curling their tails up to hide. modest?) was still thrashing it around and she *can* get it up under her to propel, but she's definitely favoring it:

(you can't see her back foot very well here but you can see her forepaw)

Another good look at that forepaw and a bit of the back one. Also some of the tip of her tail.

Best shot I could get of that back paw.

In better news, I managed to engineer an even easier milk-delivery system that makes it waaaaaay easier to do this single-handedly. Hopefully that makes it easier for David to do the daytime feedings when I go back to work.

*yawn* I really have to try to get some sleep but I don't want to leave them. Not like I'll be much good to her one way or another. Got to hope for the best....

 

[lilspaz68]

I would put the heating pad under their carrier, not in with them, disperses the heat better and there's no real contact to worry about.

Lets hope that she feels better soon, they are adorable And all eeps like to curl their tail up like that, makes sexing pretty difficult sometimes LOL

 

[jorats]

Awww...poor sweetie. I'm amazed they are still alive. You are doing a great job!

 

[fenshae]

Well, eeps still eeping. It never ceases to amaze me, every time I wake 'em up for feeding and they're still alive it's like a little miracle. Gimpy one's still looking swollen but at least she's still crawling around. Reminds me of my only other litter I've ever had, when I first got into rats -- one of the little ones had gotten caught up in a towel (everybody learns at some point why those make bad bedding choices, I think) when he wasn't much bigger than these guys. We thought at the time that his paw was permanently gimpified because he kept it curled up into a ball for days. But then he was totally fine and he grew up to be the size of a guinea pig. Seriously hoping for similar results here.

The heating pad isn't very powerful, it's the microwave kind and I wasn't sure if it'd actually disperse heat through the bottom of the cage if I had it outside. But I should try it anyway. Wish I had a thermometer I could keep on it. Will have to add that to my stack of items I really want to get, right next to a scale. At least the rats are giving me an excuse to buy new kitchen gadgets between feedings they hang out in my laundry hamper where I nestle down the carrier. It's the least-drafty place in a house full of fans and the safest from kitties. The insulation should help keep it warm lol.

Alright. Feeding & snoozing again. I can't resist sharing the miracle of these two staying alive every single time I experience it lol.

 

[eagle]

:dance: for babies and their wonderful foster mommie. :heart:

 

[jennifervb]

WOW... do you think someone was actually heartless enough to dump the newborns into a parking lot? It looks, from their ears, as if they are not wild rats. That just p1$$es me off! :redhot:

Thank heavens for you Fenshae! Hang in there! There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it looks like you're doing things right!

I will pray hard for you and the babies! They are so precious. I'm happy that they have each other. Battling the odds is more fun when you have a little partner in crime. :cheeky:

 

[fenshae]

Definitely glad I'm not the only one seeing things with those ears, although I keep second-guessing myself the more I look at 'em as to which way they seem to be pointing. We'll know for sure once the fur starts coming in better and they get bigger I guess. They also seem to be getting lighter; I thought for sure when they came in that they would be black but now mink or agouti seems likelier...but they seem to have a lot of pink/white on their sides and one has a pink spot on its head that I wonder if it'll develop into a headspot. The whole situation baffles me. We don't really *have* Rattus norvegicus in southern New Mexico as far as I know. Roof rats but mostly pack rats, kangaroo rats, and other not-very-ratty-rats are what's local.

My best guess after doing lots of CSI-like reconstructions in my head is that if they are in fact domestic rats, that they're the offspring of a mama who was "released" into the "wild", probably because she was either pregnant or just had a litter and the owners didn't want to deal with it. That particular wal-mart has a patch of desert behind it that might seem like a good place to dump an animal if you're that kind of person. I don't know that, but it seems the most plausible to me -- the two babies were all by themselves and apparently scattered a few inches/a foot from each other in the parking lot, which to me suggests they were dropped either by their mama or that somebody for some reason was carrying them. My only other guess if they're really domestic is that for some reason somebody was carrying around a container of live feeders and these two slipped out or something.

I dunno. It's baffling to say the least. How often do baby rats just seemingly fall from the sky?

Anyway. Back to sleep I go.

 

[Joanne]

Maybe someone dumped them and the momma was moving the babies to a safer place, and they just happened upon the last two to be moved?
Anyway, you are beating the odds by a mile! So glad to hear they're still eeping, and I hope the little one recovers from her injury. We're pulling for them!

 

[Katzedecimal]

I can't be the only one who wants to see this feedy-delivery system you have created :wink:
It sounds like it'd be a huge boon to rescues, vets, and fosterers.

 

[mamarat]

Fingers and paws crossed for the little ones.

 

[fenshae]

Hehe, the "Milk Delivery System" as I've been so pompously calling it, isn't really anything special. It's just a 3cc syringe with an IV catheter about the size of a coffee stirrer attached. Originally there was tubing connecting those two things, but I realized that the syringe and the catheter could screw together directly. The only thing is the 3cc delivers milk a little too quickly, so lots of it ends up dribbling out of their mouth and onto me. So this time I'm going to try things with a 1cc. it doesn't have a screw-on tip so it won't be quite as secure, but I managed to get a seal over the end so hopefully it'll stay.

the 3cc setup

fake edit: I just tried it with the 1cc, and though it's slightly unweildy because it's so much longer it's waaaay easier to handle.

Closest I could get to a sexing shot.

Their cage setup. the heating pad is on one end, the other side is just bedding. It's connected from one to the other with a tunnel of fleece (well, ok, it's a hoodie sleeve) so they can crawl easily from one side to the other.

Sleepy babies.

 

[SQ]

You might want to try a shoe box filled with strips of paper towel for the nest .... door at one end and air holes in the lid
like I use for Miriam's babies.
Then you could put a warm thing wrapped in fleece etc under one end of the box, or next to the box.
If the room is warm I would think they would be ok.

Getting too hot or burned by a heat source can kill.
Did you see the feeding chart at http://www.rmca.org/Articles/orphans.htm ?

Be careful the babies don't injest air .... swallowing air into the stomach and intestines can kill.

Glad the babies are doing well.

 

[Joanne]

How is the little one's injury looking?

 

[fenshae]

Still swollen/purple but she's using it pretty much like normal now.

Had 'em nearly 48 hours now.

 

[eagle]

:thumbup:

 

[PitLuvs]

When we raised our Nemo (wild pinkie mouse, my sister ran over his family with the mower by mistake ) we used a 1cc syringe and stripped a wire from the phone cords. You know how wires have different colored plastic on them? We took all the wire out, boiled the plastic and attached it to the bottom of the syringe and handfed Nemo that way, much slower drip like you are doing! We used goats milk at the time, as back then there wasn't much info around. He ended up living 6 years with us. Good luck to your babies hun!

 

[fenshae]

Oh wow Pittluvs, that is so inspiring! Six years?! that's a seriously hearty mouse.

babies are getting bigger! Their fuzz is seeming fuzzier and i think they're figuring out how to poop & pee on their own a little bit now.