how do i take care of newborn rats when there mother is not feeding them she is not producing any milk?

Answer 1

The best way to feed them is to use soy based powdered human nursing formula. Rats have nutritional requirements almost exactly that of humans. Puppy and kitten formula contains too much protein for the rat pups.

I suggest the powdered formula because it doesn't go bad like the canned stuff does. Plus it's better if you mix a fresh batch every feeding.

Hand feeding rat pups requires you to feed them every 2 hours for the first few days. You can either use a small spoon and encourage them to suck from the spoon or you can take a toy baby bottle and see if the pups will drink from that. Some people have even had luck dipping the twisted end of a clean rag in milk and encouraging the babies to suck on the end of that.

You'll know when the babies are full. They will have a large white patch where their stomach is. You can see the full stomach through their skin :-) .

There's more to this than what I've said, but I'll post a really good site that will help you out with your feeding problems. Good luck! Rats are sooo cute when they're tiny!

Answer 2

sorry to say they die but you could help them live. if the mom is not feeding them you and your brother need to become there new mom. call a vet and ask them how you could take care of them. go to a pet store and buy some powder milk.(kitten milk) how old are they?? if they are a week old feed them every 4 hours. and i thing if they are younger they need to be feed every 8 hours. you could feed them with a eye dropper. just research how to take care of baby rats.

Answer 3

That's so sad. :(

My dad has kept baby gerbils alive by feeding them that kitten or puppy formula stuff from the pet store through an eye dropper. It's a lot of work, because you have to do it every hour or so (even at night) and only a few of them survived.

You might check with a vet or someone at a pet store for ideas.

Answer 4

like an abandoned newborn kitten..get an eyedropper and goats milk (sell evaporated in the store next to evap milk)..diute it and warm it to room temp. feed a drop at a time..be careful and watch for reactions..just like humans they could have a reaction

Answer 5

i haven't done this before, but my breeder fed my rat with a seringe. i'm not sure exactly what kind of milk, but u can buy the seringes from a vet. they're tiny little things. hope it goes well, man.