Possible intro with mom and weaned babies

[Grey_Whiskers]

My existing two girls are 3 months old and I'd like to introduce another 2 (or 3) girls to round out the group.

One of the possibilities is two little dumbo girls from an oops litter (mama basically arrived and then began showing).
I found out mama is also looking for a home and she's a sweetie. What's one more, right?
The little girls are not quite weaned yet but it's pretty much any day now.

I would be more than happy to take mama and her daughters home, but am unsure (as I'm a newbie to rats) if it could cause issues where mama feels like protecting her babies from my girls?

As I understand it of course mama's natural protectiveness is supposed to lessen once the babies are older/weaned. She was a bit bitey etc when the babies were very small, but now has no issues with people coming close. So in theory she should be ok.

Thoughts?

 

[jorats]

It sounds like a wonderful choice. But I would highly recommend the babies not be introduced to your girls until they are at least 8 weeks old. Mama might be protective but most likely not. But the resident girls might not like the idea of very young babies underfoot. To be on the safe side, only intro once we know the babies are stronger and can hold their own which is about 2 months old.