Taking Care of an Accidental Litter
Avoiding accidental litters:
- Adopt from pet breeders with experience. Female pet store rats are often pregnant.
- NEVER put males and females together, unless neutered or spayed. This includes siblings.
I hope to help avoid accidental litters by providing my information above, however if a mistake has been made or you adopt a rat that is already pregnant, this post is here to help.
Firstly, I would like to note that you may have many problems with your litter. As you do not know the genetic lineage of the parents of your accidental litter (unless they are from a breeder, in which case the parent and babies should be immediately returned to that breeder), your rats may have illnesses (FTT, megacolon, heavy respiratory illnesses, tumours, etc) and genetically predisposed aggression that you did not expect. No matter whether the parent rat is friendly or not, their history largely affects your babies' health and how they act. When you are rehoming your babies, be sure to mention to those looking to take them home that this was an accidental litter, and their future health and temperament will be unknown.
PSA: Please note that the following information does not have nearly enough information to help you start becoming an informed and reputable breeder. If you are looking into intentionally breeding, feel free to message me with your thoughts and I can direct you to another 12 page section that gives my thoughts and advice on breeding. The steps shown are how to simply care for baby rats, not how to breed healthy, friendly rats and keep reliable lines.
On to the rest:
Accidental litters can be scary and intimidating, but are unfortunately quite common.
If you have left a male and female rattie together that are over 5 weeks for more than 1 second, it is likely that your female is pregnant and is going to have babies.
First thing is first, if you adopted your pregnant rat from a breeder please contact that breeder first and foremost. The breeder may wish to take care of the litter for you, in which case that would be your best option.
Signs that your rattie may be pregnant:
- A rounding belly. Rats bellies become very round on each side of their body.
- A large increase in appetite.
- Sudden aggression.
- Nipples becoming more prominent and visible.
- Nest building.
If your litter is born and your mama rattie is having issues with nursing, does not take care of the babies, or passes away, please first contact your local breeders to see if they have a mother that would be able to nurse the babies for you. If not, please click here to see how to take care of baby rats and raise them by hand.
Facts about rattie pregnancy:
- Rats usually give birth between 21 and 26 days after being impregnated.
- You will usually be able to tell your female is pregnant by her belly after 2 weeks of her being pregnant.
- Females may become more territorial and aggressive due to hormonal changes during their pregnancy. This is common with pet store or feeder rats, so if your rats are not from a breeder be prepared to be wary around your girl!
- Rat birth can take 1-24 hours, but is usually complete within a few hours.
- Rat litters average around 12-18 pups.
How to prepare when your female is pregnant
1. Find a suitable tank or bin for your female to stay in while she is giving birth and nursing.
These bins had fleece in the bottom for the picture, but should have aspen bedding.
- Your tank or bin should be 10 gallons at least, I still find 10 gallons to be a bit small. I prefer 20-30 gallons.
- Use aspen bedding in your tank/bin.
- Your tank/bin should have a water bottle either hanging inside, or attached to the mesh outside.
- Your tank/bin should have a food dish with a proper lab block available at all times (Oxbow, Mazuri, Harlan Teklad).
- If you use a tank, it should be cleaned every other day as air circulation in tanks is poor. If you use a bin, it should be cleaned every 4-5 days.
2. Separate your female from her partner. Move your female into her nursing bin/tank. Put your male in with another boy, or rehome your male so he can live with another male so he is not lonely.
3. Start feeding your female rat a protein heavy diet. Adding Boost/Ensure or raw chicken hearts and gizzards (gross I know, but soooo good for them at this time) really helps them hold their weight, and also helps keep lactation rich for the babies.
4. Set up two large cages for your babies to be in when they are separated. The cages should be at a minimum of 4ft squared, and have all necessary requirements such as food, water, huts, hammocks, apple wood toys, cardboard toys, etc. Make sure that these cages are both close to the ground, as babies can be clumsy and fast and a fall from a high up cage can be fatal.
During birth
While your female is giving birth, please do not disturb her. Let her be. I know it is tempting to watch, but that can stress her out.
Things that may happen that will weird you out during birth:
- Your female will arch her spine in contractions and stretch out a lot.
- Your girl will be pulling what looks to be sacks of blood out of her vaginal opening. She will eat the sack around the baby, clean the baby off, and place them somewhere. Do not worry, this is healthy.
- It is a possibility that your girl does eat one of her pups. This is usually because the pup is stillborn. Leave her be.
- Your girl may appear to ignore the babies for a while. This is fine, moving them around will stress her out more.
Overall, basically do not interfere with your rattie during the birthing period. If this period lasts more than 24 hours, only blood is being passed and no babies, or your mother rat seems to be ill during birthing, please seek vet attention and do not try to help anything on your own.
After birth
- You do not need to rush to clean the cage after birth. I would leave mum and pups alone for a good 24 hours before putting your hand in the bin.
- You will notice your mama rat is stepping on her babies a lot and they squeak. She is helping their bowels move, this is healthy.
- Pups will be nursing constantly. Continue giving your mama rattie additional protein to keep her nice and healthy and happy at this time.
- Babies can be handled at day 1. I would leave them alone with mum for 24 hours, but feel free to handle and check over the babies on day 2. Check for any bruising or issues with any of the babies, then return them to their mum to keep warm and to continue nursing.
- At around 2 weeks, your babies' eyes will open! I would handle them daily at this point. As you do not know their temperaments genetically, one takes on the responsibility of bringing out the friendliness in them epigenetically. Take them out to cuddle and play!
- At 5 weeks, it is time to separate males and females. By looking underneath their tails, you will be able to tell the difference between a male and female rat.
- While nursing and until 3-6 months of age your babies will need a higher protein content than the rest of your rats. If you are using Oxbow, use their baby rat food until they are between 3-6 months then switch to adult rat food. If you are using Mazuri, this food is for all ages but babies before 3 months would appreciate some protein supplementation like a little bit of meat or ensure or boost as mentioned earlier. The same goes for Harlan Teklad.
If you are unsure which of your rats are males and which are females, please contact an experienced breeder, rescue, or store employee to help you out. You must do this correctly to avoid ending up with many more litters.
I have made a page on sexing rats with pictures from my rattery that can be found at this link. You will be able to tell which rats are males and which are females from the hour that they are born.
Picture found here.
Rehoming your baby rats
Rehoming your baby rats to new homes can be difficult, and can take a while, so don't get discouraged!
Recommendations on what to include when you are posting your rats:
- When posting, to have your ratties adopted faster include some cute photos of them, personality descriptions and your location.
- Post an adoption fee. I would recommend a fee of at least $15 per rattie so they don't go as feeders.
Some places that you can post your ratties for adoption include:
- Kijiji
- Facebook Group: Bunz Pet Zone (only if this is an accidental or rescue litter, not an intentionally bred litter)
- Facebook Groups for rats in your area. In Toronto, our group is Pet Rats Toronto + GTA.
Please remember to ask lots of questions of your adopters. Questions you may want to ask include:
- What food will you be feeding them?
- How often will the rats get out to play?
- If they get sick, what vet will you go to?
- What cage will they be staying in?
- If there are children in the home, will they be monitored while handling the rats?
These are just a few questions. My questionnaire has over 20, so feel free to take questions from there if you would like!