I Have 2 Female Rats, One had a litter the week b4 the other and the seem to feed eachothers babies..i this ok? they dont fight and seem to work as a team
2007-05-14 18:56:10 · 19 answers · asked by ~R0XY~ 1 in Pets ➔ Rodents
I Have 2 Female Rats, One had a litter the week b4 the other and the seem to feed eachothers babies..i this ok,, becasue my friend told me no ,, its not right.. and i think its fine
2007-05-14 19:00:53 · update #1
rats are social and good mothers... it is natural and normal for them to share parenting duties.
(when they start killing each others babies, the cause is normally bad breeding, poor nutrition, too small an enclosure, and/or other environmental stressors.)
2007-05-22 14:01:41 · answer #1 · answered by Celena 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rats are social and females will take care of each others offspring. Color doesn't matter. Just make sure they are getting proper nutrition like lots of fruits and vegetables, along with the fortified diet and enough fresh water daily. If you had 3 or more females in the cage, then there may be problems because there is always a more dominant female who wants to nurse all the babies, which is impossible. This is when the babies start to get eaten. Good Luck!
2007-05-15 02:32:39 · answer #2 · answered by kriend 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Its totally fine for your two new moms to share nursing duty as long as one isn't trying to 'steal' the others babies. If all the babies are getting enough milk and the two mothers appear to be okay with the arrangement, there is no problem. It is pretty common and rats are very willing to nurse another mothers babies as long as they are similar in age to her own.
Just relax and enjoy your babies! To make sure they are well socialized, handle each of the babies daily once they are more than a week old. Make sure the mother(s) are not freaking out, but if they know and trust you, they should not mind a little 'babysitting'. Just be gentle with the little pinkies.
2007-05-16 23:57:13 · answer #3 · answered by shellsomers 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To the person above me - true due live in colonies, but white rats are different. I know I raised them. This is fine for now but I would watch them closely. If you see where the number has decreased this means one of them are feeding off the others babies. White rats seem to become jealous after a while. Why I don't know, they get along fine for a short time they become problems.
I raised both white rats and hamsters.
2007-05-15 02:09:31 · answer #4 · answered by Angell 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
They will be fine. Ive bred rats since I was 15, and there should be no problems. If there are jealousy problems, you would have noticed within the first few days that the second litter was born. Good luck!
2007-05-19 19:39:09 · answer #5 · answered by dragonmaiden1984 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
As long as they're not fighting over the babies and working as a team it's fine. Infact probably a little less stressful for the both of them.
2007-05-17 18:14:54 · answer #6 · answered by elodie_uncensored 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, this is perfectly fine. Rats are social animals and it's well-known that the females help raise each other's young. Mice will do this also.
2007-05-15 10:35:16 · answer #7 · answered by Pythoness 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
this is fine, rats are very good surrogate mothers so need to worry as long as the babies aren't getting killed, which doesn't happen very often but they are known to eat there young, but not common, maybe 1 in 100 mothers will do that
2007-05-15 07:13:08 · answer #8 · answered by dazza_wilto 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
They'll be fine...with most social animals the moms do take turns with the mothering duties (just like human babysitters). This happens all the time in the wild :)
2007-05-17 22:43:55 · answer #9 · answered by Amanda 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it's perfectly fine. they are sharing the nursing. it's a good thing because one mom wont get to tired and worn down because of having to care for a litter herself. i had female mice that did the same thing.
2007-05-19 19:10:36 · answer #10 · answered by MommyCaleb 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋