My daughter hand feeding rescued baby roof rats
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 22 May 2018
This weekend, someone rescued a litter of ten 2 week old baby rats, whose eyes had not yet opened. We told them to bring the babies to us and we would care for them.
Fortunately, as we are breeders, we are prepared and capable.
My daughter, wife and I are now hand feeding them warmed goat milk every two hours from morning until late at night. We have a special syringe with a tiny nipple, and heating pad with digitally regulated heat that can provide the exact amount of warmth that they need to survive. Hypothermia will quickly kill isolated baby rats: something to keep in mind if your rat ever has a litter. We have to wipe their behinds with a moist tissue to stimulate elimination of waste. And we have to keep them isolated from all of our other rats, and wash our hands with alcohol before and after handling them.
It's a lot of effort, but I am happy to report that they are gaining weight and we are hopeful that they will all survive. Once they are eating solid food and strong enough to fend for themselves, we will try to either rehome them or release them into the wild. These are likely wild rats, but they will be tame and domesticated, so if anyone is interested in a challenge you are welcome to adopt one or more from us.
If you want to help support our efforts to rescue baby rats, please visit our gofundme page: gofundme.com/help-me-care-for-rescued-baby-rats