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The female looks like she could drop anytime now. My question is do they go through wierd behavior around that time? The female has her head sideways on the ground and goes round and round. She does occasionally straigten up but then goes back to spinning. I have neve witnessed any of my females give birth so when i saw this while cleanng the cages it semed odd. Any info would be appreciated..

I've never seen a rat or mouse do this as a symptom of impending birth. However, I have seen it, several times. I suspect that it is the result of a severe ear infection or something of the type. Causes the effected rat to keep their head cocked to one side all the time for no apparent reason. I've left them be in this condition before, and sometime's they get better, but when they get to the point of running in circles I figure their must be a considerable amount of pain associated so I usually go ahead and put them down.

Let her have the pups. Try to wean them onto another doe for nursing. Then put her out of her misery (Unless of course someone knows how to cure her, I'd like to know about that too, I've had to put down a few real favorites)

>>I've never seen a rat or mouse do this as a symptom of impending birth. However, I have seen it, several times. I suspect that it is the result of a severe ear infection or something of the type. Causes the effected rat to keep their head cocked to one side all the time for no apparent reason. I've left them be in this condition before, and sometime's they get better, but when they get to the point of running in circles I figure their must be a considerable amount of pain associated so I usually go ahead and put them down.
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>>Let her have the pups. Try to wean them onto another doe for nursing. Then put her out of her misery (Unless of course someone knows how to cure her, I'd like to know about that too, I've had to put down a few real favorites)

I am with this advice. As to cure....only if you want to put the money into a vet visit at least once to get meds and a correct dosage to treat her and any others.(though rarely do I see it as contagious) Some pet people will do this but usually feeder breeders don't find it worthwhile. Once she has the head tilt, even if the ear infection is treated the tilt is just as likely permanent. A second possible cause of tilt is tumors. Either way she is not likely to return to any good level of productivity.
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Sonya

When I was raising rabbits there would occasionally be one that would get an illness, don't recall the formal name but it was commonly called snuffles. It was an upper respiratory infection and if left untreated it would eventually affect the inner ear causing the same sort of head tilt. If the animal was not treated or if the treatment was ineffective it would progress to the point that the animal would literally roll around on the floor because it could not hold its head up. Any attempts to do so would cause it to fall forward and roll, then struggling to get up. Even if an animal was successfully treated it was always susceptible to becoming ill again.

My point is that I believe that this is what you are seeing in the rats as well. I have only encountered upper respiratory infection in my rats once. I purchased two pair of rats from a local breeder and shortly after I set them up all started sneezing. I treated them and all recovered except for one female who continued to sneeze. She had given birth and was nursing her babies when all of a sudden her head started to tilt. She would walk in circles and seemed to only be able to walk in one direction. Since she was nursing I left her with them but continued to treat her for the infection. As soon as the babies were old enough to be weaned I put her down. It was pretty obvious that she was not going to get well and she couldn't lift her head instead looking up at me with her head on the ground.

I think that in the case 0f respiratory infection the best bet is to cull the sick animals. Just my opinion.

Marcia