Babies!!! Help!

[Smulkin]

Come on over to my place and you can suck up about 25! I am being overrun after having gotten lazy seperating the boys n girls (actually i was axe to elbows int he site upgrade). I had to turn some 91 qt sterelites into temp rat housing - truly a sad looking solution. If we had freezer room I would ice them.

[frankykeno]

Geeze too bad you aren't close to me Matt. The pet stores up here were crying for feeder rats last week. Didn't get their outside supplier order in and the one store that does some breeding was way behind for all sizes of feeder rats other than unweaned sizes. They asked me if we had any spares but sadly we are just barely keeping up right now LOL.



~~Jo~~

[Lobo_Reptiles]

Thank you and yes I really did appreciate the help everyone.

I got some Classic Blend Mouse and Rat lab blocks and also some Sunscription Vita Rat and Mouse Formula Garden Vegetables. So I've got protein and vegetables/fruit. I figured I'd mix it all together and feed it to her daily. Is this a good diet for her and the others?

[SatanicIntention]

Making your own mix would be healthier for her and cheaper for you to buy. Keep the lab blocks. I have no idea what the other food mix is. If it has dried corn, alfalfa pieces, those colored pieces that have no nutritonal value and seeds, then that is not a good diet.

A good diet consists of:
-puffed wheat and rice
-cereals such as any of the Kashi brand
-cheerios
-tri-colored pasta
-old-fashioned oatmeal(rolled oats)
-dried split peas and lentils
-dried fruit and nut mix from Walmart
-roasted in-shell peanuts(NO salt)
-A HIGH quality senior dog food that has a protein % of LESS than 20%. I use Wellness Senior but not everyone is willing to pay $12 for a 6lb bag. Use Nutro Natural Senior, or another good-quality senior dog food. NO Ol' Roy. Even dogs shouldn't have to eat that mess.
-box of Raisin Bran or similar
-Find a bag of black oil sunflower seeds that has some fruits and nuts with it(I found a bag at WalMart in the wild bird food section)

Mix it all together and feed in conjunction with the lab blocks. This will be a healthy diet and will allow her to keep her weight as she nurses those babies. Feed her what you are eating such as cooked, meaty bones, hardboiled or scrambled eggs, etc. No citrus such as oranges, grapefruit, etc. It wreaks havoc with their kidneys and liver, especially male rats. You can feed her all sorts of veggies except for lettuce(smelly, runny stool will result), onions and no avocado unless it's already made into guacamole.

That should about cover it. Any food mix you can buy at a pet store(unless it is Regal Rat) is, in fact, crap. You will not have healthy rats nor wil you have healthy babies.

And no worries about having a female rat with a male name, LoL. I have two females named Harry and Lloyd(named after the characters in Dumb and Dumber) and they actually come to their names.

I hope this helped a bit and good luck with the babies. Sorry the girl came to you pregnant. It never helps to not be prepared for these things.

[srozell]

Haven't ever seen a shop vac kill even a baby rat. A friend of mine, who is a breeder, accidentally sucks them up all the time. When she looks in the tub full of bedding, she sees the baby looking up at her like "WAHOO! LET'SDOITAGAIN!". Haha!

Clearly your shop vac needs more power. If the mice think it's just a "ride", you are not likely to be cleaning the bacteria right out of the cage. I might reccommend a Nitros upgrade.

[SatanicIntention]

*giggle* It's "just" a Craftsman 5hp 12gal big honkin' thing of a shop vac. I keep my female rats in a huge 3'x2'x4' homemade cabinet cage(made out of melamine) and it gets all 4 levels of bedding out and I still have room for all 11 girl rats, LoL. No worries about bacteria, it gets scrubbed with chlorhexidine each and every time.

I might need that NO2 upgrade though. I could probably drive the thing afterwards, haha!

[Lobo_Reptiles]

My dad accidentally sucked a baby chick up in a shop vac when he was vaccuming their little enclosure. Alls he did was open up the vac and it was sitting in there peeping away. Hehe

[alexrls]

*giggle* It's "just" a Craftsman 5hp 12gal big honkin' thing of a shop vac. I keep my female rats in a huge 3'x2'x4' homemade cabinet cage(made out of melamine) and it gets all 4 levels of bedding out and I still have room for all 11 girl rats, LoL. No worries about bacteria, it gets scrubbed with chlorhexidine each and every time.

I might need that NO2 upgrade though. I could probably drive the thing afterwards, haha!

you know if u reverse the hose so that its blowing out u could set up drag racing runs late at night all you'de need is a frickin long extension chord

[frankykeno]

How many babies did she end up having Kelly?

That mix Becky suggested may seem like a lot but believe me it lasts a long time and you don't have to spend much really. I buy a box of store brand cereal for instance at WalMart that is identical to the brand name Total (about $4) for about $1.97. I get really great quality dog food free samples at a local pet store. A lot of it can even be the ends of your own cereal so you don't waste....my rats love the last handful or two of Banana Nut Crunch that no one around here will use up LOL. I use up a lot of leftovers on them that would otherwise get tossed out (scraps of cooked meat, bones, extra cooked pasta, stuff like that).

I love that the rat colony efficiently turns that stuff into big fat baby rats for me! Just had another female deliver a litter of 12 today and my other female is nursing her litter of 15 pups (well 13 since Malachi ate two last night LOL).


~~Jo~~

[srozell]

you know if u reverse the hose so that its blowing out u could set up drag racing runs late at night all you'de need is a frickin long extension chord

Personally I think Jet fuel is a better option than an extention chord.

In practice however, I am limited like everyone else.

However, the thought of setting up the vaccuum to blow instead of suck inspires interesting images of force feeding....

....me thinks this needs it's own thread.. .or section..