Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yup it's odd but true! My rat had her first litter Tuesday night/Wednesday morning under a large log hide. When I got home from work this evening all 12 pinkies were in her food bowl! I have two food bowls in there so she took all the food out of the one and put bedding in there, and than put her babies in one by one. She is a skittish rat, so I'm not sure why she put them out in the open. So far they are well fed and she is tending to them! Any takers on explaining this odd situation?

Lets just hope I get to see them grow nice and big!
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*Amy*
0.1 Green Iguana (yes, I have a lizard in my bathroom)-iggy
2.2 Ball Pythons (normal)-cosi, jake, ruby and frosty mcfry
0.1 B.smithi (mexican redknee tarantula)-athena
0.0.1 midland painted turtle-nemo
1.1 dogs-rocky and skippy
1.0 normal grey cockatiel-opie
0.0.30 betta, guppies, rosy reds, fantail goldfish, clown pleco,...
0.0.1 african giant black millipede-max assasin
Lots of Feeder mice
and Mulder and Scully the breeder rats!

I have a couple of rats that tend to do this. When the pups outgrow the dish or if there is a big litter they split the litter and put some in a box (which I provide) and nurse them in shifts. Who knows why.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I actually don't use food bowls but I once had a big old salsa dish in with the mice, and for a while they used it as a food dish, until the babies came. Then they used it as a nursery. Then one day the water bottle malfunctioned... and the next time I looked I saw there was a lake inside the bowl. I was ever so relieved when I saw the pile of babies had been moved... she saved them! Mice and rats are funny things.

Another time I came home and a new mom in a wire cage had pushed ALL the babies out the wires so there was this huge pile of pinkies OUTside the cage. Some were bitten though, and became snake food. The rest were fostered off and the momma rat fed off too. Biters and pushing-babies-through-the-bars rats go to ratty heaven and remove themselves from the gene pool.
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~Sasheena

haha SO FUNNY!

Thanks for the replies! I am relieved my rat isn't the only weirdo! I don't care if she tapes them to the ceiling, as long as she tends to them!
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*Amy*
0.1 Green Iguana (yes, I have a lizard in my bathroom)-iggy
2.2 Ball Pythons (normal)-cosi, jake, ruby and frosty mcfry
0.1 B.smithi (mexican redknee tarantula)-athena
0.0.1 midland painted turtle-nemo
1.1 dogs-rocky and skippy
1.0 normal grey cockatiel-opie
0.0.30 betta, guppies, rosy reds, fantail goldfish, clown pleco,...
0.0.1 african giant black millipede-max assasin
Lots of Feeder mice
and Mulder and Scully the breeder rats!

* blinks* I dont want to know where a mouse is going to get the tape to tape their pinkies to the ceiling

my mice haven't had babies yet i am hoping that they will tend to their babies * crosses my fingers*

lmao
CrazyCody