A funny thing happens when word gets out that you do rat rescue: You start getting phone calls and emails about all sorts of strange things. But this was the first time I ever had someone knocking at my door in the early morning (around 2 A.M., in fact), yelling that they had an emergency. A rat emergency.
The person standing on my doorstep was someone I knew, at least -- my boyfriend's cousin. And considering the kind of hours we keep, 2 A.M. isn't an unreasonable time to show up at my house and expect us to be awake. Still, a rat emergency? Really?
As it works out, the emergency was that he had found two tiny pinky rats, alone and abandoned, in the Wal-Mart parking lot where he worked. And felt compelled to bring them to me to.
Now, I'm going to pause right here to explain a few things. First off, I'm a private rat rescuer, not a wildlife rehabilitator. I don't make a habit of dealing with wild rats at all. And, had I been there, I can't guarantee you that I would have stopped to rescue the little abandoned pinkies. I might have...but I might not. Circle of life, and all that. But, once they showed up on my doorstep, they were my responsibility, so I did the best I could.
They were probably 4-5 days old when they arrived. They were also freezing cold. I warmed them up and built them a little nest in a carrier, gave them a heating pad and some fleece, and set out to buy some kitten Esbilac formula, a few syringes, and a little Pedialyte.
Here's some advice: If you are ever in the position of raising orphan rats, there are several things that will make your life easier:
- If at all possible, find a lactating foster mom. Trust me. Hand-raising orphan rats is nearly impossible and you will have much, much, much better luck if you can have a nursing mother feed them.
- If you can't find a lactating rat, use kitten-formula Esbilac or other milk replacement. This will need to be warm when you give it to them, but don't mix the powdered formula with hot water as it will kill the nutrients. Instead, mix it with cold water, then heat it up slowly in a mug of warm water (do not microwave).
- The rats will need to suckle, which means they'll need something nipple-like that they can form a seal around with their mouth and get milk out of when they suck. I tried using syringes with IV catheters for awhile, which worked OK, but it worked way better to use a small square of fabric soaked in milk. A bottle would be ideal, if you can find one with a small enough nipple
- You will need to keep them warm with a heating pad, but give them the opportunity to get away from the heat source. You'll have to feed them every 2-4 hours, and then clean their privates with a warm, damp cloth to encourage them to poop and pee after every feeding. You should also be rubbing them down after each meal to encourage them to grow.
- You really should find a lactating foster mom.
I'm not sure what happened to the babies, in the end. Headspot had severe bruising to her paw and tail that ended up causing the tissue to swell, then necrotize. Fuzzy started bleeding rectally on the 6th day. They had some sort of internal hemmorage, and died in short succession -- first Headspot, then Fuzzy the day after. I'm not sure what caused the internal bleeding. Swallowing air, maybe, when trying to suckle. Or maybe they had a small amount of rat poison in them, from their mother's milk. From the symptoms, rat poison seems likely enough, but I'll probably never know for sure.
I still have nightmares about these babies sometimes. I wish I could have done more for them. It's amazing just how much you come to love a tiny, fragile, helpless life when you're the one responsible for it. After just a few hours, I felt the kind of fierce love that only a mother can have. I miss these babies. But I really hope I never have any more pinkies come my way without mothers.
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