Interesting Predicament... Anyone know about birthing?

[user 1405]

Well, I'm in an interesting pickle. I just got a new neighbor a few doors down the hall about a week ago and she saw me going around with gizmo on my shoulder the other day when I took out the trash. So she asked me if I knew anything about birthing rats... I told her no and that I only dealt with males. However, some people don't always listen and now I'm being roped into making sure a 6 month old female (said neighbor bought her for her 8 year old daughter from a pet store and they didn't know she was pregnant) doesn't have any issues while giving birth...

A little info about the rat:
Name: Missy
Color/Markings:Agouti Berkshire
Age: ~6 months, bought from a pet store where she was housed with several other rats in a large display bin in Montreal
Expected Due Date: This weekend or so I think as they've had her for almost 2.5 weeks now.
Size: Average female ~6-7" and she's not all that big for a pregnant female, must be a small litter coming seeing as she's still a little young. Weighs in at about 400 grams...

Edit: This was supposed to be posted on Nov. 26, but I had to save it in draft form and return to it later when I had time.

Anyway, I decided to take the rat to my vet to see if he could determine how far along she was. Looks like I was wrong, turns out that she isn't due for another few days or a week (approx. between Dec 4-6). The good news is that she's healthy so far and he doesn't see a problem so far, but that could change once she goes into labor. I'll keep you folks posted! Let's hope my neighbor will let me take a few photos of her, she seems to detest the idea of having cameras in her home...

 

[SQ]

Most births go fine for both moms and babies.
Most rats make wonderful moms and take good care of babies after birth.
There are quite a few threads on this forum you might want to have a look at.
Lilspaz68 has posted several threads on pregnant rats and followed them through the birth and care of each litter.

Here is one on Lilith and her babies: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13519&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=birth&start=210

A links:
1. labor and birth http://ratguide.com/breeding/birth/labor_and_birth.php

If there are any problems, I'm sure people on here will be able to help.

Some scary links:
1. labor emergencies http://ratguide.com/breeding/birth/labo ... encies.php
2. birth trauma http://ratguide.com/breeding/birth_abno ... trauma.php

Mom will need extra protien before the birth and while nursing ... suggest daily (or twice daily) baby cereal mixed with soy infant formula, ensure, or water. Also things like a bit of cooked egg or chicken and vegs like peas. Good quality lab blocks and access to water in a water bottle are also important. A shallow water dish will be important once babies are a few weeks old as babies will not be strong enough to use a water bottle even tho it may look like they are.
Hopefully the mom is in a cage where the babies will not be able to fall through the bars or she will be in a tank until babies are 14 days old.

hope everything goes ok

 

[lindsayfawn]

Make sure she's feeding her some high protein things so she has lots of good milk production. Egg, chicken, tuna stuff like that will help her a lot! Also make sure that there are no hammocks or high things that she will have the babies in or take them too. You don't want having babies falling out of things so the cage should be as simple as possible.
Make sure there are no things that have strings on them as babies can get caught in them and either strangle to death or lose limbs. Also tell her to give her nesting materials like fleece and paper towel.
umm...I think that's it lol I'm sure there are others on here more experienced with litters but these are all the things we did when we had our surprise litter.
Hope everything works out and it's a small litter.

Make sure the males are separated from the girls at 4.5 weeks of age as they are sexually mature at 5weeks.

Good luck!

 

[user 1405]

Thanks for the info, All I needed was the birthing and labor part. I'm aware of the high protein diet requirement and the owner's been pretty good at making sure she has plenty of it, as well as the whole nesting and gender separation at 5 weeks. It'll be interesting to see what kinds of babies come out of it.

I'm letting her use Gizmo's old ZooZone cage/hutch that I had him in for the last few weeks, he's bunking with Chester and other than being a wheel addict, they get along great. Chester just pretty much lets him do his thing. Good news is that the lice problem has cleared up, I was giving them all a bath every few days in an anti-flea, mite, etc. shampoo the vet gave to me to use on Gizmo as he was too small for the ivermectin shots.

It's essentially a medium sized container with a wire top, but it has no levels or wires to climb.

http://doremi-fansubs.com/zoozone.jpg <-The ZooZone cage in use when I got Chester and those are Aspen shavings.

 

[lilangel]

Im not too sure but you may need to tell her to have a lower bottle for the babies when they reach a age where they want to eat and drink as then they will be pretty small still.(water bowls are not good as they could drown so i herd) and you want them to get use to using a water bottle and not a water bowl.

I have a cage like that or should say had i sold it as its not the greatest for rats lol but yeah i know the bottle is way high for babies to reach. So maybe tell her to somehow attach the bottle to the metal and make it hang if you can? or try another type of cage?

If using a tank you can get tank water bottle hangers and have it lower or higher im not sure if that would work in that type of cage.

 

[user 1405]

Angel, good point. Gizmo was just barely able to reach the bottle... I could probably rig a new holder with some wire coat hanger and hang it inside the cage rather than outside as the way it is now. I know that she won't have to worry about about cage space for the whole lot as she's got a fairly large Martin's cage as it is (rat tower I think) and she intends on purchasing another cage once we know how many boys and girls that will be in the litter.

 

[pscychopomp]

hijacking the thread slightly; the cage underneath the plastic one, what is it? (product name/brand) I just bought the same one used and I was curious what it is...

 

[lilspaz68]

I think its a Hagen Chinchilla cage.

 

[user 1405]

hijacking the thread slightly; the cage underneath the plastic one, what is it? (product name/brand) I just bought the same one used and I was curious what it is...

Heh, it's alright. It's a Living World Rat Resort cage. It comes with 2 shelves and ramps, I bought that as part of a Rat starter kit when we first got Snickers and Titan and it's a decent sized cage, but I wouldn't date put more than 2 big males in it, not more than 3 females.

http://www.number1petcentre.com/cgi-bin/petpgm2.cgi?search_for=1256071713&action='search'

 

[Moon]

I wouldn't put more than two females in it, and not long term. It's not really big enough to put a decent wheel in and still give them floor space.

Cage calcs put it at two, but the footprint isn't ideal.

 

[user 1405]

I know what you mean Moon, but I have to make do with what I got and I don't really want Chester and Gizmo to be all alone, I'd rather them be together in a slightly smaller cage than in 2 cages with no company.

 

[Moon]

Oh, I agree with you, but I'd never put three rats in that cage unless they were babies. That's what I was getting at

 

[user 1405]

Yeah, but seeing as Gizmo is still a baby, there's plenty of room in there for them, unless Chester decides to block up one of the shelves with his girth (1 1/2 lbs... he's a big boy!).

 

[jorats]

I'm surprised your vet was able to determine a date for delivery.
If they had her for 2.5 weeks back in last week of November... it might seem that the girl got pregnant at her new home?
Did you see Missy? Are you sure she's 6 months old? It's not common to find an older rat at a pet store like that. Usually they are all gone by the time they reach 2 months... unless she was a return?

 

[xxchelle]

Weighs in at about 400 grams...

Just so you know, Trapper, the night before she gave birth to 11 babies, weight 320 grams.

So do we know who the father is, then? If they've had her for over three weeks now, and she's due in a week, then she got pregnant at your neighbor's place.

 

[Moon]

Not necessarily Chelle. If she had a litter at the store it could be a postpartum pregnancy, and they can take longer than 28 days to pop.

 

[henry's_mum]

Not necessarily Chelle. If she had a litter at the store it could be a postpartum pregnancy, and they can take longer than 28 days to pop.

This has happened to moi...

 

[xxchelle]

Ahh okay, I thought the MAX was 28 days for a back-to-back litter. Unless she has the babies soon, she's going over the 28 day mark, from what Mike has told us.

 

[henry's_mum]

Ahh okay, I thought the MAX was 28 days for a back-to-back litter. Unless she has the babies soon, she's going over the 28 day mark, from what Mike has told us.

I believe postpartum preganncies can take as long as 35 days? or more?

 

[Moon]

The study we looked at put a confirmed birth at 38 days, and possibility of 40!!