The Babies Are Here!

Nutmeg went into labour at 12:00pm, delivering seven healthy baby rats in around thirty minutes. I assumed at 12:30pm she'd finished labouring as she settled in with her young and went to sleep, she was also nearly the same size as she was before the prenancy which is another tell-tale sign labouring is finished.


I gave her a small piece of jam and cream cake which she had a few nibbles of before bedding down. I like to gove my does a little "congratulations" and "thank you" treat when the easy bit is over and the hard part of rearing begins!



Here are some photos of Nutmeg with the little ones in the birthing tank:

Suse and Cinnamon expect their babies soon; and Black and Honey, our mice, currently have two babies a piece. The rest of their litters, unfortunately, were taken away to be snake food. The rats, on a lighter note, will ALL be reared by their mums and then sold on as pets. Don't forget to email if you're interested in taking on a baby rat as pet, you can go onto the list to view them when their older.

Our home is somewhat of a menagerie, I suppose. We certainly have quite a lot of pets. Here's a definitive breakdown of whom they and of what species:

Dogs - Rosie, a female English Springer Spaniel. Rosie is nine months old.

Cats - Unix, a male black really fluffy moggy and Slashdot, a black moggy female. They are just kittens now, but when they are older they will have kittens of their own. Unix is three months old and Slashdot is five months old.

Rats - Nutmeg (and seven babies), a female Cream Hooded cross Siamese, Flapjack (the babies' father) a male is exactly the same but from a separate litter born to separate owners, Cinnamon is a female Silver Fawn Berkshire, and Suse is a female Black and White Hooded. Suse is the oldest and eighteen months and has provided us with four previous litters and is carrying her fifth! The other females are on their first litters.

Mice - In tank one we have a black self female who has two black and white babies, a honey blonde female who has two babies that are still in the "pinky" stage, and a cream rex male. They are breeding snake food, but we have allowed two babies per mother as not to shock the mothers by their whole litter vanishing and the remanding girls will go into the other tank as breeders and the males sold as pets. In tank two we have a chocolate self female and a chocolate and white capped male, the male is the father of the babies in tank one. The female does not seem to be pregnant yet. If she cannot carry a pregnancy then she will be sold on as a pet.

Corn Snakes - All hatched at different times between July and August 2008, we have a female Carolina Corn who we bought first. Next we bought an Amel Male, and then a Snow female. These will also be bred from and the hatchlings sold as pets.

Fish - We have a variety of fish in a ninety litre BiOrb in our lounge. We have three red comets, two blue orfes, two ghost koi carp, three gold fish, one fantail, two shubbunkins and one butterfly plec who keeps the tank clean of algae!

Well that everone. There is me and my husband as well.

All the animals have lots of love, even the snake food breeders. Everone is cared for in a humane way. No one is forgotten and everyone is in abundance of food!

Next time, I'll show you my model hobbies - my doll house project and my H.M.S Victory!