Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all. I have never posted in this forum before. However I have been reading the posts for a while.

My femle had babies and I was supposed to clean the cage. Will they be alright or should I move them to fresh bedding? Will this create a problem? It has been about 4 days since the last change. There was only 1.1 in there.

I have moved the male so I can introduce him to 3 other females. Is this ok? If so, what is the best method of introducing him. The females have been in a cage by themselves for a while now.

I do thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experiences.

ans_enter

My experiance is limited to my colony where everyone is an offspring of my original pair. I have never had any problem swapping rats around. I did have one mother that killed some of her offspring when I cleaned a cage right after she gave birth, but I believe she is the one I'm going to cull now because of small litters/stillbirths. Others aren't bothered by cage cleanings. If this her first litter you might want to give 24 hours to calm down.

BTW, what sizes are your cages? I can go 10 to 14 days with 2 rats on alfalfa pellets in a 16" X 24" cage. I don't keep them alone unless they are being quarentined for some reason.

As for the best way to introduce him, I'll let someone else chime in. Of coures you can always play Barry White and turn down the lights!

Good Luck,
DeMak

She'll not be bothered by you cleaning the cage after she's had 24 to 48 hours to bond with the babies. Rats are GREAT mommas. I've never had any trouble introducing males to females. Usually, I put the females into the male's cage, but I've also done it the other way 'round without trouble. The only time you really ever have to worry about problems introducing rats to each other, is that you never want to put a strange rat into a cage containing a momma and pups, because the pups will get massacred.

tricia
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tricia

Thanks,
Should I put in one female at a time? Or can I introduce the three together?

>>Should I put in one female at a time? Or can I introduce the three together?
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tricia

Thanks for the info.
The rats are in bins with about that same floor space (perhaps a little less). I built a small rack system to save space (plans from here at KS).
I was concerned because there are some droppings in there, but Mom has done a wonderful job of moving the bedding to suit her needs.
I will give them another full day to settle in and then do a cleaning.
Thanks again.