wild rat impregnates Lily the hooded rat- 10 babies born friday!

[scout]

Good luck to Jeremy - may he be a happy dad to some wild woman rat in his new digs.  He may, of course, have brothers....    so that's something to watch out for.

Good luck with the little eepers. I'd love to hear all about them as they grow up!

[ckhs]

Poor Jeremy, he must be terrified

[treefrog500]

Let's just hope he doesn't instinctually find his way back "home".  Please post pictures if you have any later.  

Jessica

[Ree]

Poor Jeremy, he must be terrified

wtf?

[AfterGlow]

Poor Jeremy, he must be terrified

wtf?

Um... Yeah! my thoughts EXACTILLY!

[clarky90]

Hi all
I am feeling a bit sad. I took Lilly's ten babies to the pet shop a few hours ago. They are four and a half weeks old and eating solid food.
I haven't written for ages so I'll tell you the intervening news.
The babies all look like their father, soft, grey and feral except for a tiny white tip on their tales (except for Rocket who somehow lost the tip of his tail- for a while I thought half of them had a bitten tail because everytime I'd put my hand into the nest to grab a baby, I was always getting the same one- Rocket). They also have pale whitey grey patterns on their tummies. They are the cutest little rats you can imagine- all very healthy. The whole litter survived (eating avocado and cashewnuts and codliver oil).
My best friends eleven year old daughter was in total tears because her folks wouldn't let her have the two babies that she and her friends had picked out, named and loved. She was offering to give him her life savings (about $300) if she could only have those rats. It was very sad. I think we all know the feeling.
Lilly was a great Mum. She wouldn't let us or her sisters near them for the first few weeks. She wouldn't bite, but she'd put her mouth around your finger if you stuck it in. We were peaking , but she would move the babies and block up the holes. When they got fuzzy she got more relaxed and less vigilant. I tried putting them in a clean nest, but she just picked them up and put them back in the stinky one.
The babies are sweet natured and very fast and alert. I have had tons of kids playing with them and never had a problem. I thought I had lost two or three, but when I took them to the pet shop, there were ten. Kids would lose a rat, but they must have crawled back into th big cage through the chicken wire.
I was really worried that no one would want wild looking baby rats, but when I took them to the pet shop (not a chain) the rat expert was delighted. She wants to keep one of the girls to breed from. She says that she will have no trouble selling them all. Before I took them to the pet shop, I took them to my eight year old son's school so he could show them off to the kids in his class. About four kids are going to try and convince their parents to get some of our babies. One of the teachers looked at them and shivered- yuk, rats- but the kids were all delighted and everybody got the chance to hold a baby.
I would have loved to keep them, but I can't. I have to go away for six weeks and organizing care for my three big girls is awkward enough. I pray that the babies all find good homes.
marc

[rattislave]

  Like I said in a previously, I hope they go to good homes too!....... They will need alot of attention and sooo much patience (more than our domestic rattys)........  
If you weren't planning on definately keeping them you shouldn't of encouraged the breeding in the first place........
I feel sorry for the little ones as they are half wild and will be terrified in a pet shop...........
I had an escapee.... and have been put in this position ( I didn't encourage it at all), about 8 months ago.... so I know what I'm talking about.....  mine are still quite scared...., it's not fair on them!......  I think it's quite irresposible.....  

[DaisyHillRats]

but when I took them to the pet shop (not a chain) the rat expert was delighted. She wants to keep one of the girls to breed from.

So, because of your mistake, you had these 10 babies who are half wild, and now a supposed "rat expert" wants to keep a baby she knows NOTHING about genetically and BREED her??

I think that's one of the most horrible things I've ever heard! Because of your indescretion, now there will be more and more litters born...and the cycle repeats itself...

[Waynesbrat]

**runs for cover**

[Ziggy]

 

[AfterGlow]

 

Come on you guys. She made a mistake. Everyone does. Don't bash her. She's trying to do all that she can to give these rats somewhat of a better life. It's a lot better then setting them out in the wild.
Yes, they are half wild and half domesticated, but they need love too.

[squeaky]

i agree with Afterglow.

[Ziggy]

But she came here asking us what she should do (aswell as generally telling her story) and we said that it would be ok to let the babies live, as long as they went to rat knowledgable homes and NOT a petshop, under any circumstances. I don't think anyone here advocates giving ANY rat you've bred to a pet shop, let alone one thats half wild.
And the very fact that someone wants to BREED from these rats is worrying. Yes they may have 'nice temperaments' but that alone is not a reason to breed. My boy Seven has a fantastic temperament, exactly the perfect rat, and I've been tempted a few times, but no. And I would be willing to keep all the babies too. But theres already too many rats that need homes and theres already people out there who breed and are doing a better job than me.
This wouldn't be so bad and Im sure no one would bash you if it weren't for he fact that we DID say not to give them to a pet shop and not to breed from them. If no one had said anything, you'd be firgiven for just making a mistake. But this can't be a mistake since a lot of people warned you.

[tunes]

Actually, no, it was not a mistake.  These people were hoping for a pregnancy between their fancy rat and a "wild" rat because they thought it would be "neat."  Everyone warned them that it was not a good idea, but they still thought it would be great.  There was no accident, it was deliberate.   They allowed a wild rat to have access to their female and allowed their female to run loose outside the house.  Is that an accident too?  

Sorry, I'm with the negative posts here as well.  This should never have happened, let alone encouraged, and hoped for because the owners thought it would be a neat thing to do.   I also can't imagine, with the very, very short gestation period of a rat, that they did not know they would be leaving for six weeks before encouraging Lily to get pregnant.  It's just a sad situation all the way around.  

[DaisyHillRats]

EXACTLY, Tunes! Didn't the OP say they were "thrilled", or some other synonym? Come ON people! This was clearly no mistake!   The OP said they KNEW this rat was inside their house for 2 years and still they let their fancy go under the house to be with him! That doesn't sound like an accident to me...on the contrary, it sounds like it was all part of the plan!  :huh: And to give these babies to the pet shop after 3 PAGES of posts telling them not to, and warning of the consequences....I'm completely speechless.  

And now this genetic line will be perpetuated...and whatever problems the parents develop down the line will come out in the babies...who will also have babies...and round and round we go...OMG I better stop before I type out a venomous personal attack and click "post".....

[stodda29]

There's just one thing about asking for advice that tends to get overlooked:  asking for it in no way guarantees you'll follow it to the letter.  Nobody, to the best of my knowledge, has ever posted to the board saying "tell me exactly what to do and I'll hang on your every word", though most are grateful for whatever information is offered, and many do follow the advice given to some degree or another.

I think everyone's preferences and advice have already been made abundantly clear here, and while everyone may not be happy with the way things turned out, expressing violent, hissing displeasure over and over is neither going to change anything nor make the less experienced any more comfortable with asking for opinions here again.

[Ziggy]

expressing violent, hissing displeasure over and over is neither going to change anything nor make the less experienced any more comfortable with asking for opinions here again.

True, but something had to be said. I find that if you constantly take the 'never mind, you messed up but we love you anyway!' Disney- approach, people will time and time again repeat their mistakes, or not realise the severity of the situation. It tends to make people sit up and think 'hmm....guess I DID mess up' a lot more than just saying 'nevermind' And if I can prevent this sort of thing happening again by letting someone know that I think they were wrong, it's worth it.

[stodda29]

Letting someone know you think they were wrong is fine, and, given that they were asking for advice, entirely appropriate; I'm just not certain that someone needs to hear it a dozen different ways with the occasional personal attack thrown in.  I should hope that they've got the point by now.

Probably a little premature to have posted this in this particular thread, but I've seen these sorts of discussions go downhill fast before, and just wanted to toss in my own .02 before the topic got locked.

[kratties]

I personally think that when someone comes on here and makes a post about something and asks for advice. We shouldn't start giving them a hard time and making them feel bad. They don't come on here and make posts to hear the same bad comments over and over again. I understand that sometimes people may do things that some people don't agree with. I don't understand why the same bad thing needs to be posted over and over again, I think the first few bashes they get the point. This person obviously is trying to make the best they could out of their situation. I just don't like to read threads that are full of negetivitey, we should say how we feel without trying to make the person seem like they are a bad ratty parent. We shouldn't be so mean that it makes people not want to come back. Just my thoughts...

[TheChicagoCrew]

Ok it sounds like this is going downhill -- again. This person's rat got pregnant, had the babies, the babies are now weaned and in a pet store. I don't agree with how things were handled from start to finish, but it doesn't sound like we're going to be making any difference to this person's decision. It's just going to keep going back and forth about what coulda/woulda/shoulda been done. I don't see how anything positive could come out of the remaining conversation without a LOT of negative things being said.

-Melina