cute but no photo

[quietann]

I have a little round pregnant rat who's due any minute. Two hours ago, she was sleeping on her back, belly up. It was so cute! I would have taken a photo, except she's in early labor and a little bloody.

9 PM ETA: We have peeps! At least two, and I think this is going to be a small litter.

Comments

[ratgrl.livejournal.com]

yay peeps! Can't wait to see the little erasers!

[daynavon.livejournal.com]

Awww, I have a picture like that, blood and all. It's still a super cute photo though I've posted a warning before showing it anywhere in case someone's queasy about blood.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

you are right; I really should have gotten a photo of her. She's rex, too, with a mussy belly.

I'm not sure about the babies actually :( She's on the nest and I've heard the occasional peep, but it's way too quiet in there. I can't imagine her having more than 4 babies or so.

[daynavon.livejournal.com]

My gal only had three at that time.. it was about three years ago. I have three litters right now.. one is 14, one is 4, and one has only a single surviving baby. The 14 are great, the 4 are over two weeks old and quite fat, but the one is about 4 days old and still not that big.. hoping it makes it.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

She has two babies. She's staying in the nest with them but I am not sure if she has milk :( I've had the most problems with small litters and have mostly ended up fostering them onto other moms... but this time I don't have another mom :(

[daynavon.livejournal.com]

Sadly my single pup passed today too.. I would have fostered her into the litter of four, but they were three times her size already and she'd of been smothered. =/

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I am down to one now :( It's the bigger, stronger one, but mama has been unwilling to let me see if it has a milk tummy.

My average litter size is 11 or 12. I've had better luck with mamas raising huge litters, 15, 16, even 18 than with small ones. I think my rats just don't produce milk unless there is at least one baby for every two nipples.

(I did have an "only" baby who made it, many many years ago. But his mom was a pet store rat, and also a very very determined critter. She was very confused about having only one baby, though. When Billy started crawling around, she somehow got the idea in her head that her tail was also a baby that needed to be confined to the nest. Have you ever seen a rat trying to carry its own tail????)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

yay baby rats! looking forward to the pics. :-)