Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tuesday afternoon one of my rats gave birth. When I got home from work the mom was sitting quietly on the babies feeding them. The babies were all cleaned up but there was some blood in her bedding that looked pretty fresh. I needed to feed a small snake so I got in there to get one of the babies and I noticed one of them was dead for no apparent reason. I counted and she'd had 10 including the dead baby. I took the dead one out along with the live one to feed to the snake. Wednesday when I was changing the water I noticed another dead baby. Well, when I pulled it out I counted and there were 10 including the dead one. So sometime during the night or morning she'd had two more babies! One that lived and one that died. Is it normal for rats to not have all their babies at once? I am worried, and I am trying to monitor the mom without stressing her too much. She hasn't moved the babies and doesn't seem to mind me around but she seems really tired. I know she just had babies, but she sleeps a lot of the time now and she lays down next to the babies so they can nurse. She doesn't even jump up when I come in the room. My other rat sat on her babies to nurse them and protect them too. Is my new mom sick or just more relaxed?
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
1.0 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Silvered Black - Pluto
1.0 Powder Blue - Corner
Plus the breeders
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

Anna,
Just last week when I was cleaning cages I noticed that a rat had had a litter of only 4 babies. It kind of annoied me because she had been producing rather well. I looked again the next day and there were 14. I don't think it is unusual for them to take a break. I've seen dogs deliver 3 or 4 pups and clean them up and seem to be done then and hour start again.

Another possibility is that two of the babies were burried in the shavings and you just missed them on the first count.

Don't worry about mom sleeping. If the babies look health and active they are being fed that's all that matters. Maybe the delivery took a lot out of mom.
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Wade's Weptiles & Wodents