The Birth of Baby Rats

The mother will eat the placenta.  This helps her to lactate.

The runt.

Actual picture of mother delivering her baby.

All cleaned up and ready to have thier first or maybe second meal.  There are 15 babys.

24 hours old and unfortunately the runt has died.  I tried putting him back in the nest but she wasn't interested.   How sad, but I know these babies are going to be big and healthy.  They all have huge milk bellys.  You can see the stripe of milk on the rat on the left.

"Udder" contentment.  Babies at 5 days old.  They show thier colors rather quickly.

Babies at 8 days old.  Their fur is really coming in and their eyes should be opening by the end of the week.

<--Click here to see page 2 of The Birth of Rats.