Ratty Babies Story
Apr. 6th, 2006 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormExerpt from an email. The story of my babies:
Because there are so many things that can go wrong, I now try to breed 2 litters at the same time (but getting the rats to catch on to that plan is a whole different matter!) Just recently I bred 2 litters, sired by my favorite buck, but things went wrong with both litters! The first doe had 6 babies. All appeared to be healthy and had milk bands. The next day when I got home from work, for whatever reason, there were only 3 babies left. 3 days later, when the second doe gave birth to 2 babies, I began to suspect fairly early on that she was not producing enough milk. I was very tempted to put the 2 babies under the doe that was nursing well, but because 3 healthy looking babies had already disappeared, I was hesitant. I was also hesitant to take the babies away from the mother who was flat out doing her best with them and didn't seem to realize she wasn't producing enough milk.
Sadly, because of my hesitation, one of the babies died. By the time I got home from work the next day, both babies were clearly in distress, but one no longer even had the strength to nurse. I put them both under the nursing doe and she tried her best to stimulate the little guy, but it was too late. I took him back out again and he died a few minutes later, cradled in the palm of my hand. As if dealing with the guilt and pain of dead babies isn't stressful enough, it was heartbreaking to watch the mother chewing on the cage bars and racing frantically around the cage, trying to find and get to her babies.
Because there are so many things that can go wrong, I now try to breed 2 litters at the same time (but getting the rats to catch on to that plan is a whole different matter!) Just recently I bred 2 litters, sired by my favorite buck, but things went wrong with both litters! The first doe had 6 babies. All appeared to be healthy and had milk bands. The next day when I got home from work, for whatever reason, there were only 3 babies left. 3 days later, when the second doe gave birth to 2 babies, I began to suspect fairly early on that she was not producing enough milk. I was very tempted to put the 2 babies under the doe that was nursing well, but because 3 healthy looking babies had already disappeared, I was hesitant. I was also hesitant to take the babies away from the mother who was flat out doing her best with them and didn't seem to realize she wasn't producing enough milk.
Sadly, because of my hesitation, one of the babies died. By the time I got home from work the next day, both babies were clearly in distress, but one no longer even had the strength to nurse. I put them both under the nursing doe and she tried her best to stimulate the little guy, but it was too late. I took him back out again and he died a few minutes later, cradled in the palm of my hand. As if dealing with the guilt and pain of dead babies isn't stressful enough, it was heartbreaking to watch the mother chewing on the cage bars and racing frantically around the cage, trying to find and get to her babies.
