Thursday, July 30, 2009

Is it possible to hand raise baby mice?

If a mother mouse dies when her babies are so young that they are hairless and their eyes are still fused, is there anyway for them to be raised, or would they be better put to sleep? I can't imagine how you bottle feed them, and how often and with what, and the effort would be huge, but I just wondered.
Answers:
You can hand raise pinkies. you need a medicine syringe and some kitten milk replacer. You need to keep them warm with a cloth and some bedding. Feed them every hour or two depending on how much they will eat. Then take a warm cloth and rub their tummies with it stimulate a bowel movement and then clean them up. It would be best to try and find a nursing mom with babies around the same age if you can though. E-mail me and let me know where you are located. If you are close enough and you would like someone to handraise them for you I could take them in. If not I can give you any other advise that you need.
yes its possible, my husband did it before
take them to a vet or a pet store.
it is possible, and at petco or petsmart there are these things that look like rodent water bottle spouts but theyre a little rodent bottle to make them drink out of. just hold it up to thier mouth and theyll drink it, and squeeze it gently to make the water come out so the baby knows what it does. the water bottle looks like this, but it's the smallest one:
http://www.rattyrat.com/images/reviews/a...
ok? good luck!!
Yes it is. Get baby milk formula from any store. Get a little suringe(like the type used for giving infants medicane) and feed them from it. Make sure you feed them every few hours. Plus make sure they are very warm. Make sure they are always covered in something (like fabric or bedding). It is very important that they keep warm. If they are still young and you have another mouse that had babies around the same time she can take them in as well. But before putting the babies in her cage use some of her bedding and rub it on the babies(try to get her scent on them. Make sure you dont touch them or you'll get your scent on them. If she smells her scent on the ophaned babies she may think they are hers, its possible she wont though so this should be your last option. Good luck. I hope your little guys make it. I hope I helped ya.
it is possible, my brother bred mice for a year, make sure you go to a vet or someone so they can hlep you
It’s very difficult to hand raise a baby rat less than 2 weeks old. The best option is to find a nursing rat to serve as a foster mother. As long as the babies are about the same age as her own, mother rats are almost always willing to adopt orphans. The best way to locate a foster mother is to contact local breeders, pet shops, or rat rescues.

If a foster mother isn’t available, the only alternative to save an orphan is to raise him yourself. When attempting to raise an infant rat, there are three elements to consider: warmth, hygiene, and diet.

Until their fur grows in, baby rats can’t regulate their own temperature. The best place to keep an orphaned rat is in a small box on a piece of felt large enough to also form a blanket over the baby. (Felt has no threads that can get wrapped around the baby’s legs.) Infant rats can climb better than you might think. Be sure to use a box at least 6" deep, or cover the box so the baby can’t climb out.

Warmth can be supplied by a hot water bottle, a lightbulb, or a heating pad. The important thing is to keep a thermometer next to the baby so you know exactly what temperature he is experiencing. Use a small weather thermometer, not a medical thermometer, as the latter can’t record drops in temperature. Keep the temperature around 100-102 degrees F. Higher temperatures can be fatal.

Use heating pads with extreme care as they can get very hot. Use on the low setting only and place only one end of the box on the pad so the baby can crawl away from the heat if necessary. You may even have to put a towel between the pad and the box to keep him from getting too hot. At two weeks of age you can start gradually reducing the temperature.

Infant rats can’t go to the bathroom by themselves. They’re stimulated to go only when rubbed around the genitals and anus. This is so the mother can ingest the waste and keep the nest clean. Massage the rat’s genital area with a damp cotton ball for several minutes before and after every meal to take care of this important hygiene matter. If you fail to do so, the rat will die of toxic poisoning from his own wastes.

You can clean the baby of spilled food after meals with a damp cotton ball or by dipping him in a warm bath up to his neck and rubbing away the food. Be sure to dry him well. Also give him a full massage after every meal just as his mother would lick him to stimulate his circulation and help him to grow.

The Formula

I recommend using human soy baby formula. The nutritional requirements for rats are closer to that of humans than dogs or cats, and if you look at the information on the components of rat milk at the bottom of the page, you’ll see that the percentage of protein and fat in the human formula most closely matches that of rat milk. Be sure to buy the powdered formula, and the soy formula, not the milk-based formula.

Here is the schedule for mixing the formula (this is especially critical for pinkies):

1st feeding 4 parts water to 1 part powder (eg. 2 teaspoons water to ½ teaspoon powder)
2nd feeding 3.5 parts water to 1 part powder (eg. 1¾ teaspoons water to ½ teaspoon powder)
3rd feeding 3 parts water to 1 part powder (eg. 1½ teaspoons to ½ teaspoon powder)
4th feeding 2.5 parts water to 1 part powder (eg. 1¼ teaspoons water to ½ teaspoon powder)
5th feeding 2 parts water to 1 part powder (eg. 1 teaspoon water to ½ teaspoon powder)

If a baby gets diarrhea, gets bloated or becomes dehydrated, go back to the mixture for the 2nd feeding and progress on from there.

To mix the formula, first warm the water to about 105°F (which will feel hot). It will cool as you mix in the powder and you want it to end up being about 100°F (slightly warm). You can measure out the amount of water in a tiny container and heat it in a microwave for a few seconds, or you can heat a quantity of water in the microwave or on the stove and then measure out the correct amount of water. Then mix in the powder. If you need to feed several babies, you need to set the container of formula in another bowl of warm water to keep the formula warm. A mug warmer (cheap at Wal-mart) is a great tool to keep the bowl of water warm while feeding.

The amount to give at each feeding is 5% the body weight (in grams) as ml. So you multiply the baby’s weight in grams by 0.05. So if a baby weighs 6 g, it should eat 0.3 ml at each meal. (6 X 0.05 = 0.3) A baby who weighs 18 g should eat 0.9 ml. This is critical for pinkies, so you must have a gram scale to keep track of their weights. You can buy an electronic postal scale that will weigh in grams at a stationery store.

Feeding

Getting the formula in baby rats can be a challenge. One of the best methods is to get an IV catheter or small rubber feeding tube from your vet. These will fit onto the tip of a syringe. You will have to cut the feeding tube shorter. The end of the catheter or tube is about the same size as mother’s nipple, but you will still need to slowly squirt the formula into the baby’s mouth. You can also use an eye dropper with a narrow tip. Be careful not to overfill the baby’s mouth which can cause choking.

Another method is to use a tiny piece of rag and form a nipple from one corner. Start by dipping the “nipple” in the formula and squeezing drops into the baby’s mouth. Once the baby starts sucking on the rag, you can drip formula little by little onto the rag with a dropper so you don’t have to remove the nipple from the baby’s mouth.

You must have the rag or eye dropper in the baby’s mouth when it sucks so the baby sucks on the “nipple.” One person tried just dripping formula into the open mouths while the babies sucked, and the babies swallowed too much air. This can be fatal because rats cannot burp. Air bloating the stomach must be sucked out with a needle and syringe through the body and stomach wall.

Sterilize the feeding equipment—including the catheter or rag—every morning in boiling water. Mixed formula can be refrigerated for 24 hours before you need to discard it. Warm only the amount of formula you need to feed by placing it in a small container sitting in a cup of warm water. Do not microwave the formula! Test the temperature of the formula on your wrist before feeding it. It should feel warm but not hot.

Hold the baby upright. You might try wrapping it securely in a tissue or cloth. It may take a while to get the baby used to nursing on the new nipple and the new taste.

Once when I was hand raising a wild roof rat who was just under 2 weeks of age, I thought he hated the formula because he would lick a few drops and then open his mouth as if he was gagging. I finally realized he was opening his mouth to begin power sucking! Infants use their tongue and upper palate to create the suction. Once I got the eye dropper properly positioned he would suck down about 0.75-1 ml in about 5-10 seconds! All I had to do was lightly squeeze the eye dropper bulb.

Newborn rats normally nurse about every 2 to 3 hours. You’ll need to feed your baby every 3 hours during the day and once in the middle of the night for the first week and every 4 hours the second week. Feeding too often will prevent proper digestion.

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