Hand Raising Baby Rats

Rats make great Mums and can cope very well with motherhood on their own, but what happens if Mum isn’t around to care for her baby rats?

It’s down to you. Don’t worry, yes it’s hard work, but it will be worth it when you have lots of healthy rats. Read the information below carefully, before embarking on your ratty journey.

If the pups are under two weeks old it will be much easier for you to find a nursing foster rat to help out. Rats will nearly always happily adopt the orphans and of course it is much healthier for the pups, if they have all the nutrients they are meant to get from a real mummy rat. If you don’t have a nursing rat check with your local breeders and pet shops. They may well have one.

If you do find a foster rat, you will still need to check on the babies once a day. Pick them up and check them over. This way you can check they are healthy, whilst they get used to your smell and to being handled.

You may hear the babies making a chirping sound, a bit like baby birds. Don’t worry, this is normal and mummy rat will look after them.

Hand Raising

So you are now responsible for bringing up the baby rats. If you are dedicated and caring, you will be fine.

Bedding

First make sure that you have somewhere comfy and secure to keep the babies. A small box will be fine. Make sure it is at least 6″ deep, as you would be surprised what the little bubbies can escape from. Line the box with a cosy baby blanket or polar fleece. If you are looking after one orphan rat he will find it very comforting to have a mummy rat sized soft toy to cuddle up to.

Baby rats can’t regulate their own temperature, so it is up to you to keep them warm and of course, to make sure they don’t get too hot.

You can use a warm hot water bottle, covered by a blanket, a heat pad, or a light bulb in the direction of the box to warm the babies up.

You can get microwaveable heat pads, or a proper veterinary one. Either way make sure that it is not too hot and that it is covered by a cosy blanket.

Keep the heat pad to one end of the box, so the babies can wriggle away if they get too hot and keep the heat pad on a low setting. If the babies become too hot, it can be fatal. You may want to keep a thermometer handy to check it is not getting too hot or cold for your babies.

Cleaning

When they are with their mother, rat pups will get individual attention every day and this is essential for you too.

Baby rats cannot go to the toilet on their own and it can be fatal if too many toxins build up. It is your job to help them get rid of waste. You should massage your babies genitals gently before and after each meal, with a damp cotton ball. Be gentle, but make sure you get the waste out. Remember this is a matter of life and death.

It is also important to make sure that you keep the baby clean. Clean any waste, or spilt food off your baby and dry him gently, but thoroughly.

Give each of your babies a gentle, full body massage after every single meal. This is very important and mimics what a mother rat would do. It is comforting for your babies and will help them to digest their food and will stimulate their growth. It will also get them used to being handled.

Food

The closest milk to a mother rat’s is powder soy baby formula. This is actually closer in nutrients than the milk you buy for dogs or cats. Of course nothing compares to Mother Rat, but this will give the bubs all they need to grow and hopefully be very healthy too.

Do not under any circumstances use regular milk. You must use powdered soy formula, or ask your vet for her recommendation. It is important to get the powdered variety, so that you can water it down as much as needed.

You will need to feed your baby rat every 2 to 3 hours during the day and once in the middle of the night (told you it was a full time job) for the first week. In the second week you can drop to feeding every 4 hours. Do not feed your baby rat too often, as this can stop proper digestion.

It is very important not to overfeed your babies, so follow the guidelines below or ask your vet for more advice.

First Feed

Dilute the soy baby formula with 4 parts water. To work out exactly how much to feed the baby, weigh him on some electronic scales. Weigh him in grams and then multiply the number of grams by 0.05. The number you end up with is the amount in ml that you should feed your bub at each meal. For example if your baby weighs 5g, you would feed him 0.25ml per feed (5g x 0.05 = 0.25ml). It is very important to get this right, so make sure you weigh the baby, before each meal.

Dilute the soy baby formula with 4 parts water. for example if you use half a teaspoon of powder, you dilute it with 2 teaspoons of water)

The water should be warm, but not too hot. Test it on your wrist, as you would with a human baby’s milk. To warm the water, sit it in a bowl of warm water. Do not microwave it, as this affects the nutrients in the formula.

Once you have the feed ready get a comfy piece of fabric to hold your baby rat with, whilst you feed it. Hold the baby upright. You can use a small rubber feeding tube, or an eyedropper to feed the baby (your vet should be able to source these for you).

Make sure that the tip of the feeder (or the nipple) is in the babies mouth and then slowly squirt the milk in. Do not overfill bubs mouth, or he will choke.

Remember rats can’t burp, so make sure the end of the feeder is definitely in bubs mouth, so that he doesn’t get wind. If he gulps in too much air you will have to take him to the vets straight away.

Your baby will then start feeding. he may lick the drops of milk, or open his mouth to suck the teat hard.

If you have trouble the first time you feed your baby rat, remember it may take a while for him to get used to the new way of feeding.

The Next Feed

By the second feed you will feel a little more confident in your abilities as a foster mother. This time dilute the powder with 3.5 parts of water. The feed will be a little more nutritious for the baby, but it is important to build up slowly, or the baby’s digestive system may not be able to cope. So if you have half a teaspoon of powder, dilute this with 1 and 3 quarter teaspoons of water.

By the third feed you can dilute half a teaspoon of powder with 1 and a half teaspoons of water.

By the fourth feed you can dilute half a teaspoon of powder with 1 and a quarter teaspoons of water.

By the fifth feed you can dilute half a teaspoon of powder with only 1 teaspoon of water.

Remember…

to massage your baby and help him to toilet after every meal. If you find the baby has diarrhea, then go back to diluting the powder with 1 and 3 quarter teaspoons of water and gradually build up again.

Every night you must remember to sterilize all your feeding equipment in boiling water. This is very important to keep your babies healthy.

Weaning

It won’t be long until you can breathe a sigh of relief. Your babies are growing up!

Even after only a week when their eyes open you can start to introduce very runny baby food on your finger. This is the first step to big ratty food.

After two weeks you can stop the bottle feeding and let your babies eat baby food mixed with formula from a shallow bowl. Over the next two weeks you can phase out the formula and introduce more baby food and by the end of week 4 you can stop the formula and feed the young ‘uns on real food.

Well done! You’ve reached the end. Now make sure you separate the boys from the girls before you have more trouble on your hands.

If you are wondering how to tell boy rats from girl rats click here for more info.

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