The last few weeks have been both fun and not fun for the rats. The adult males from the earlier rescue are in a different foster home and I kept the girls and babies.
Gardenia had her emergency spay first. She was pregnant so it's a good thing that we were able to get her into the vet. She came through surgery with flying colours but the glue holding her skin together did come unglued a bit so I had to flush the wound twice a day until it closed. Thankfully no infection. She HATED taking her meds. She is timid but getting better every day.
Alexia aka Little Mama was originally with Karla aka Big Mama and was co-parenting and nursing the litter of young. She was hostile and protective, and she even bit me. She was next to be spayed. She was not pregnant and even though the vet was unable to get the cone of shame on her she did not worry her incision and healed beautifully. She would only take her meds if contained in something delicious such as a scone. Now that she is no longer hormonal she has mellowed out, though does not really like being touched.
Karla is VERY protective of her babies. She's bitten me twice, once so bad it became infected and I needed to go on meds. (I also don't like taking meds.) She still actively lunges at me. She is a great Mom. Her babies are fat and sweet. Today they are 2.5 weeks old. At 14 days rat babies eyes open which is why I know exactly how old they are. This is important for two reasons, firstly the sexes need to be separated within their 5th week of life so that we don't have babies having babies, and second rats can be impregnated hours after giving birth. So now I am on baby watch. A few days before birth the mama rat will plump out looking rather pear-like so every day this week She gets a visual once over. As she was nursing we did not spay her.
The babies are so cute and are starting to rough and tumble with each other. Slowly exploring their world. There are a few that are slightly bigger than the others which to me is proof we had a mixed baby litter, born maybe a day apart. Currently there are 4 that we can definitely identify as boys, the other 5 are either girls or not sure what they are. A few more days and testicles should drop a little further making it very easy to identify.
