Yikes! my rat is having babies

Don't laugh, I know that is what they are supposed to do, but I just got this female 2 days ago. When I was putting her in with another young adult fem. and male, I said she looked preganant. I get up this am and the entire cage is re-arranged. Since virtually the majority of my female mice are having litters, the squeaking didn't clue me in. I was feeding tonight and hear squeeking of this cage and there she is with four babies so far. YIKES
Do I leave her in there, the male seems aware of what is going on but not bothering her, it's the other female who keeps causing a bit of a ruckus. No sign of cannabalism. So do I leave her or do I take her out. The whole rat thing is new to me. susang

Male rats are actaully great fathers. I've seen them helping with the parenting. I'm not sure if they kill babies that arn't their own though. It's a possibility, I know mice do.

One thing that might be a concern is the male rat will get her pregnant again right away. She will be receptive as soon as she has her litter. This might not be too much of a bad thing if you want to pump out the babies as soon as possible, but when I was breeding rodents I liked to give the female a bit of a rest in between litters. Being constantly pregnant, lactating, and giving birth a lot is quite a strain.

All said, I think you're rather lucky! Generally it takes a few months for new pairs to get used to each other and start producing.

I had a similar situation where a rat I bought from the store had babies that night. It was her first litter, so she wasn't really showing. She had three babies, one was dead when it was born, and she ate the other, leaving one. Rats aren't usually cannibalistic except on their first litters. They will eat babies until they have a number they are comfortable with. The cool thing about rats though is they make good foster mothers. I threw an orphaned mouse in with the same rat I just told you about, and she raised it very well!


PS: One more thing to add, since the litter is only 4 I'd assume it's her first litter. Be prepared for the second to be much larger!
Also, be prepared for CUTENESS and not being able to actually feed off the rat pups. I have to buy my rats already dead online now because it's too hard for me to feed off such cute babies. I end up holding too many back and being over run with rats!

I would leave her in there. Rats are far happier in colonies.

Rats are far less likely to be cannibalistic than mice. I have both and have NEVER had cannibalism with my rats. Only the mice. The rats do eat any babies that are stillborn though but they do not usually eat living, healthy babies unless they are forced to due to starvation (which I am sure yours are not! ).

Incedentally I have noticed that my rats fight alot less when I put in new group members. I bought a new female a few months ago and she settled right in and had a whole pack of pups the very next day! Didn't have any problems with other girls or the male.

Congrats on your new eepers by the way!

Well when I got up this morning there are 6 or 7 babes in with Mom they look great. Dad is very attentive. I will start handling them in a couple days.

I just had one of my rats pop out 12 eepers last week, and this was her first litter! But everything went great.

Rats definitely do better in groups, but I would definitely seperate out the male after her next litter (as she is probably already pregnant again) because they really need breaks inbetween. They seem to last a bit longer that way