advise needed,urgently,lol?

Question

well here goes,i bought a male rat a while ago but kept biting,so i changed it for 2 females,BUT,the man in the shop said he split males from females,iv just lookes in cage & there 5 baby''s,this was a shock indeed,lol,iv no-idea wot to do with them,can anyone give me advise on what to do plz xx

They are both Females,iv checked,
the thing also what happens when i come to clean the cage out,what shall i do with them all ??
i do now believe i was sold a pregnant one,iv phoned the pet shop,he basically said he hasnt anyroom for them & cant take them of me.im very annoyed with him grrrrr.lol

Answer 1

This once happened to me so I know how you feel.You are in this for 6 weeks-rehoming baby rodents younger than this is illegal in both the UK and the USA-even to a pet shop.

OK first of all do NOT clean the cage.If you touch the babies their mother will reject them and she will bite your hand if she sees it near them-they are protective mothers.If you had had her a while she would know you better and let you handle them but as you haven't don't risk it.

Leave the babies aunt with the mum-she will help look after them.When this happened to me even though only 1 girl had been pregnant they both suckled the babies-apparently female rats will come into milk if another female nearby gives birth.

Make sure the food and water bowls are full at all times and give them a good balanced diet.Once the babies eyes open and they have fur and start to move around on their own you can handle them.Do this daily so they are tame and easier to rehome.

When they are 50 days old go through the litter and take out all the males and put them in their own cage-this will avoid them mating with the females.The girls can stay with mum and auntie.At this age the difference between males and females is obvious and they will be weaned.

Ask everyone you know to see if they want pet rats.Rehome in pairs of the same sex-if you want to keep 1 make it a girl to avoid more litters and the need for 2 cages long term.

The babies should stay with you till they are 6 weeks old.

Report the pet shop to the RSPCA (ASPCA if your American)for not taking care of it's animals properly.

Answer 2

Hi klc, Take note of what Greg says, he is spot on correct. You can clean the cage after 1 week. Take mum and sister out and clean AROUND the nest taking care not to touch it or disturb it in any way. You will easily be able to tell if the other rat is a boy or girl. A boy has very large testicles under his tail, they stick right out and look completely different to the girls bottoms.If it turns out to be a boy you must take him out. You need to seperate the babies at six weeks, the girls from the boys because at six weeks a female can get pregnant. 6 babies is a very small litter. It's more often 10 or 12 and sometimes as many as 15 ! Bet you find that she's had a few more !!

Answer 3

You need to determine whether one of the rats you have is male and if he is remove him from the enclosure, if they are both female and she got caught pregnant at the shop you need to determine which is the mother and remove the other female, leave the babies with there mum until they are eating solid food and drinking from a water container, then separate the mother from the babies. You then need to sort out the sex of the babies they will breed again if they are together too long.
Following that you could do things like asking friends if they wanted one or even get them sexed by someone who knows what they are doing and if you can afford it, buy a really big cage and keep more of the same sex together. Rats make fantastic pets and will live together in same sex groups, my philosophy when it comes to rats is the more the merrier - Good luck.

Answer 4

Wow.. what an awesome surprise! lol Call the pet store and ask them for more info on what to do but i'm pretty sure you need to separate the male from the female and babies.. The rat could have been pregnant before you got her (i'm not sure how that happened if they were separated. obvisously somewhere along the line they weren't! lol). A rat's pregnancy is about 3 weeks. Hope that helps!

Answer 5

Let the mother raise them, and as soon as they're weaned take them back to the store so that any males won't breed the mother or the other female. Do this when you see that they're eating solid foods. The body will be about 1 1/2 inches long or so. (not including the tail)

Make sure everyone has enough food and clean water and that the cage is cleaned regularly.

The man at the store may have seperated them, but before that who knows? She may have come to the store pregnant.

Always risky buisness buying female rodents of any sort who are of breeding age.

Answer 6

Hi, Don't touch the babies yet, the mother may eat them if you put your scent on them. After about 2 weeks you should be able to handle them. Just do what you normally do with your rat's. I would ask the pet shop to take them back when they are weaned from their mother. If you havent managed to find them a new home after 5weeks take them and have them sexed so you can put them in separate cages, you don't want more babies.

Answer 7

You will have to keep them for a couple weeks untill the rats are strong enough and able to live on there own then it will be perfectly safe for you to sell them. But i would complain to the pet store either one of them was pregnant when he sold you it or he gave you male & female rats.

Answer 8

let them stay with the mother for a few months, then decide if u wanna keep some or all of them and sell the ones u dont want to the pet shop or to a friend. hopefully u should make some money!

Answer 9

take the price you paid for the rat multiply it by .25 I.E. $2.00 X .25 = $.50 that is a fair price to sell them back to the store if they are interested in buying them back they might trade you for something like supplies food etc. or just give them away some reptile owners will use them for food so if that is a problem for you, you will have to deal with that as it comes. you do know you will not be able to keep them together now without getting one of them fixed

Answer 10

I had the same problem with mice, thought I had 2 females but then saw baby mice. I would make sure that the mother and babies are on their own together because I didn't think about seperating the male from the mother and she ate the babies.