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Natal Rats...

bribrian

bribrian

Cubes "Я" Us
African soft furred rats/multimammate mice, whatever they're called i've just picked up 4 adults, supposed to be 1 male & 3 females but i haven't checked that out yet. I know that i've got at least 1 female as there was 5 babies in the delivery box with them so i'm delighted to have got 9 for the price of 4...lol... :crazy02:
I've never bred rats/mice before & have been reading up but i can't seem to find an answer to one question. When you're cleaning out the cage & females are tending to young do you shift babies & all to a container or just clean around them....... :shrugs:
Anyway here's a quick pic of the new arrivals...... :cheers:

multi1.jpg
 
With mice you can just move the babys when cleaning. Atleast thats what I have heard, havnt got to test it out yet.

Nice lookin bunch of rats!

Ryan
 
There isnt a whole lot of info out there about natal rats. I would play it on the safe side and clean around them. there are a few others on the site that have been lucky enough to get their hands on some but i am not sure they have produced for them yet. There is a site that has some info- i dont know the address but if you google Natal Rats you should find it. Best of luck!
 
For all intents and purposes you can treat them just like finicky rat mothers; leave the nest intact with all its' stink, and if they're really panicky anout it you can mixe some of the old bedding in with the new to put their smell into it.

A frend fo mine is going to sell some to my GF to raise; right now we're messing around with white-faced dumbo rats and hairless, too.

friggen rats alive!

GL with them, though- lok for the babies to change. . . they look so different from their parents.
 
schilsound said:
For all intents and purposes you can treat them just like finicky rat mothers; leave the nest intact with all its' stink, and if they're really panicky anout it you can mixe some of the old bedding in with the new to put their smell into it.

A frend fo mine is going to sell some to my GF to raise; right now we're messing around with white-faced dumbo rats and hairless, too.

friggen rats alive!

GL with them, though- lok for the babies to change. . . they look so different from their parents.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that :cheers: , i've toyed with the idea of keeping rats & mice for a while now & decided on these as they're supposed to have no smell as opposed to stinky mice....lol...
 
I just came back from my local animal/reptile expo and the breeder that I bought the natal rats from is no longer selling them. He called me over, all worried, and showed me a printout of some CDC information about african rodents and how they are not legal to sell or own in this country, somehow connected with monkeypox disease or it's prevention. I have yet to research it myself but he acted like it was definitely true that they could not be legally sold or kept in the entire United States.
 
Flagg said:
I just came back from my local animal/reptile expo and the breeder that I bought the natal rats from is no longer selling them. He called me over, all worried, and showed me a printout of some CDC information about african rodents and how they are not legal to sell or own in this country, somehow connected with monkeypox disease or it's prevention. I have yet to research it myself but he acted like it was definitely true that they could not be legally sold or kept in the entire United States.
Click to expand...

Even with proper testing and quarantine? I find that a bit restrictive. I mean... let's just stop all immigration from any countries having a high AIDs percentage. Or lets stop buying food stuff from Mexico.
 
Finally managed to get a couple of pics of the babies although there's only 4 left out of the original 5....

babies1.jpg

babies2.jpg
 
My natal rats just birthed their first litter. I got them almost 7 weeks ago.

Looks like 8-10, I'm hoping the litters get bigger like they're supposed to be.

29099a44-1.jpg
 
...and one under the brown female in that pic as well, I believe.

29099a44.jpg


I'm going to get an accurate weight and count tonight when I clean the cage. I want to get a daily weight to see how their growth compares to standard mice and rats.
 
are they male and female? because normally you remove the male he gets jealous and gobbles up the baby's, i used to breed mice :cool:
 
No, the male is still with the 2 females. I don't remove the males and there have never been any problems. I leave the males in with domestic mice as well and they help with the pups.

And no I don't believe any of them in the pics are dead. They were being jostled around by the adults running over them when I was shooting the pics.
 
okay well, there all kinda cute for rats :p i like the mother one, respect to her for carrying and giving birth to all them, my mums having 1 and shes going through enough problems with sickness and backache, well done!
 
Hey Flagg

I could be wrong (it's much easier in person of course) but I still count nine in your second picture.

I don't know if you're new to raising rodents or not, if you have experience, feel free to disregard. I'd give the one on the left (off to the side) a bit of extra attention. It could just be the picture, but he/she looks smaller than the others, and I don't see a 'milk band'. If it looks like that one isn't going to make it (long enough to be food, at least) you can try giving it some one-on-one time with mom. Some people think that the reason first-time breeders have smaller litters is because they aren't experienced enough yet, and babies can be 'forgotten.'

Good luck!
 
Ok I stand corrected, once I got a close look and counted and weighed them, I found one dead (top one in pics) and the one mentioned above does seem very weak.

Final count was 8 live and 1 dead/stillborn. They weigh approximately 2 grams (my scale isn't any more accurate than 1 gram) and look just slightly larger than a newborn mouse pink. Maybe closer to a 2 day old mouse pink as a guess.
 
Flagg said:
My natal rats just birthed their first litter. I got them almost 7 weeks ago.

Looks like 8-10, I'm hoping the litters get bigger like they're supposed to be.
Click to expand...

Nice first litter, shame about the dead one but good luck with the others.... :cheers:
 
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