Rat babies? need help!

Question

ok, so before you start gripping me out here is what happened, i have a female and a male in the same tank, BUT...i have tryied to breed her before MANY times, and she never took so i figured that she was sterile! they kinda caught me off gaurd. your probably wondering how i didn't notic her getting fatter, but she is a very peitie rat and i was trying to fatten her up with cat food, so i asumed it was working.

1st question, is the cat food still ok now that she is nurseing?

2nd, i took a picture of the babies, i'm wondering how old they look to you, she had them in her house and don't normally look there when feeding them, but last night i went to clean the cage and there they were. also on of them appears to be yellow what could that mean?

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k160/prismatic_paco/100_1066.jpg

Answer 1

I totally agree with the frst answer. You obviously know nothing about breeding and baby rats.

Answer 2

Well I'll try to actually answer your questions instead of moaning around.

I know what pregnant rats look like, and it is easy to mistake them for being chubby. Rats are very hardy, even domesticed ones, and the cat food you're using should be fine. It has been fine enough so far to produce some healthy looking babies! They're nice and chubby, except for the "yellow" one as you described, who's just the runt, but this doesn't mean anything bad. Almost all of our "runts" have "caught up" in the end and turned out fine. Just watch to make sure he gets his share of food. From my experience watching rats grow, they look to be about 3 days old. Have fun with them!

Answer 3

Don't listen to those breeder-haters, I have 17 rats and although I don't breed I understand people who do. Home raised babies are sweeter then lab or store raised and you can keep the ones you want of either s*x with their parent of that s*x.

From the photo you have, it looks like they are getting milk look for a band of whiteish near the middle of the belly and that is always a good sign.

I would get her off the cat food, the protein levels are not right. Look for lab blocks or critter cubes they are sometimes called. Give her plenty of those, water (double what she normally has) and lots of good healthy food. Anything you can eat healthy is great for rats. Stay away from cabbage (causes gas) and chocolate.

Take a look at this site and good luck with your babies!!!

Answer 4

My wife found a book at the pet shop we trade with on rats and you can feed cat food to your rat but be careful how much you feed her.

Answer 5

AHHHHH!!  I think I'm going to have a meltdown about irresponsible owners!  I swear this is the 5th question I've seen like this today!  Only people who know what they are doing should be breeding animals!  You should NEVER put an unaltered male and an unaltered female of any species together unless you want babies.

Check out these sites about baby rat care (check out the breeding section):

http://www.quite.co.uk/rats/

http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/information/

Additionally, start thinking now about what you're going to do with these baby rats.  Start finding responsible owners.  Be careful how you approach adopting them out, as many people look for cheap rats to feed snakes instead of giving them good homes.

Hope that helps, sorry about the rant, but seriously!

EDIT:  I am not a breeder hater, my rats are from a breeder.  The problem I have is when a random owner who knows very little about breeding proceeds to have baby rats (or whatever).  If you are serious about breeding, are very familiar with owning the species you are breeding, and have done your research and have a plan regarding the animals you're breeding, then that's fine.  Pets from individual breeders are usually much better than what you find at the big chain pet stores.  

I get spazzy with the people who come on yahoo answers with "accidental" litters because they put an unaltered male and unaltered female together and clearly don't know what they're doing.

I'm off my soapbox....