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Date Posted: 05:31:51 09/30/08 Tue
Author: yasmine
Subject: Re: baby rats
In reply to: tory 's message, "Re: baby rats" on 22:25:35 07/09/03 Wed

>It's very difficult to hand raise a baby rat less than
>2 weeks old. The best thing is to find a nursing rat
>to serve as a foster mother. As long as the babies are
>about the same age as her own, mother rats are almost
>always willing to adopt orphans. The best way to
>locate a foster mother is to contact local breeders or
>pet shops.
>
>If a foster mother isn't available, the only
>alternative to save an orphan is to raise it yourself.
>When attempting to raise an infant rat, there are
>three elements to consider: warmth, hygiene, and diet.
>
>Until their fur grows in, baby rats can't regulate
>their own temperature. The best place to keep an
>orphaned rat is in a small box on a piece of felt
>large enough to also form a blanket over the baby.
>Felt has no threads that can get wrapped around the
>baby's legs. Warmth can be supplied by either a hot
>water bottle, a lightbulb, or a heating pad. The
>important thing is to keep a thermometer next to the
>baby so you know exactly what temperature it is
>experiencing. Use a small weather thermometer, not a
>medical thermometer, as the latter can't record drops
>in temperature. Keep the temperature around 100-102
>degrees F.
>
>Use heating pads with extreme care as they can get
>very hot. Use on the low setting only and place only
>one end of the box on the pad so the baby can crawl
>away from the heat if necessary. You may even have to
>put a towel between the pad and the box to keep it
>from getting too hot. At two weeks of age you can
>start gradually reducing the temperature.
>
>Infant rats can't go to the bathroom by themselves.
>They're stimulated to go only when rubbed around the
>genitals and anus. This is so the mother can ingest
>the waste and keep the nest clean. Massage the rat's
>genital area with a warm damp cotton ball for several
>minutes before and after every meal to take care of
>this important hygiene matter. If you fail to do so,
>the rat will die of toxic poisoning from its own
>wastes. Also clean the baby of spilled food with a
>damp cotton ball after meals and give him a full
>massage after every meal just as its mother would lick
>it to stimulate its circulation and help it to grow.
>
>Feeding
>
>Now comes the hard part: feeding the baby rat. I
>recommend using human soy baby formula. The
>nutritional requirements for rats are closer to that
>of humans than dogs or cats. Buy the powdered formula,
>because the liquid will quickly go bad. Follow the
>directions for mixing it for babies, but the first few
>feedings, dilute it more than usual to give the baby
>rat a chance to gradually get used to the diet.
>
>Most nursing bottles sold for orphaned animals have
>nipples too big for rats. You might be able to find a
>doll bottle that will work. You can try using a
>dropper, but it's easy to get too much in the rat's
>mouth at one time which can cause choking.
>
>One of the best methods is to use a tiny piece of rag
>and form a nipple from one corner. Start by dipping
>the "nipple" in the formula and squeezing drops into
>the baby's mouth. Once the baby starts sucking on the
>rag, you can drip formula little by little onto the
>rag with a dropper so you don't have to remove it from
>the baby's mouth.
>
>Sterilize the feeding equipment every morning in
>boiling water. Mixed formula can be refrigerated for
>24 hours before you need to discard it. Warm only the
>amount of formula you need to feed by placing it in a
>small container sitting in a cup of warm water. Do not
>microwave the formula! Test the temperature of the
>formula on your wrist before feeding it.
>
>It may take a while to get the baby used to nursing on
>the new nipple and the new taste. Hold the baby
>upright with a tissue under its chin to catch spilled
>formula. Be careful not to give the baby too much
>formula at once, or it can choke, causing formula to
>come out its nose.
>
>Newborn rats normally nurse about every 2 to 3 hours.
>You'll need to feed your baby every 3 hours during the
>day and once in the middle of the night for the first
>week and every 4 hours the second week. Overfeeding
>can cause stomach upset. During the first week, stop
>the feeding session when you can see that the baby's
>stomach is full of white formula(it will show through
>the baby's translucent skin. Later, the baby will let
>you know when its had enough by turning away from the
>bottle.
>
>The Weaning Process
>
>When the baby is a week old it will start to get hair
>and may be ready to try slurping some baby cereal
>mixed with formula off your finger (mix it soupy). At
>two weeks of age, when its eyes open, most of your
>work will be done because the baby will be able to eat
>baby food and rodent blocks soaked in water. At this
>age you can stop the night and bottle feedings and
>offer the formula mixed with baby cereal in a dish
>(jar lids work great.) By 3 weeks of age the rat will
>be eating mostly solid food, although it wouldn't be
>weaned yet, so you should still be offering some
>formula. At 4 weeks you can completely wean your baby
it is so har inm going to let i die or we might digcect it!!!!

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