How to Feed Baby Rats Sugar Water
Like many baby animals, rats are best cared for by their mothers or by foster mothers who feed them natural milk. That cannot always be the case, however, and some people choose to raise orphaned baby rats. As a temporary substitute for mother's milk or formula, you can feed a baby rat a sugar-water mixture that will sustain the animal for the first few days of its orphanage.
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Things You'll Need
- 1 cup hot water
- ¾ tsp. sugar
- ¼ tsp. salt
- Syringe
- Feeding tube
- Spoon
- Scale
Instructions
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Pour the water in a small baby bottle. Add sugar and salt.
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Stir the mixture thoroughly until all sugar and salt has dissolved. Pour the mixture into a syringe and attach a small feeding tube to the top of the syringe; the tube's feeding end will be about the same size as a mother rat's nipple.
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3
Weigh the rat before feeding. Feed the rat 5 percent of its body weight in grams. For example, if a baby rat weighs 6 g, multiply six by .05 (5 percent) to determine the amount of food it should eat. This rat should eat .3 ml of sugar water.
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Feed a baby rat every two to three hours during the day and once in the middle of the night during its first week of life. Rats over the age of one week should feed every three hours. Gently squeeze the syringe to push sugar water into the rat's mouth; squeeze slowly to avoid putting too much water into the mouth at once.
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Tips & Warnings
Get feeding supplies such as the syringe and feeding tube from a pet store or from a veterinarian's office. You can also use a small eye dropper to help get the water into the rat's mouth.
Discard the sugar water solution after eight hours; this solution will begin to grow bacteria if it is kept any longer.
Baby rats cannot live on sugar water. Sugar water should only be used for one to two days, as a temporary feeding solution until you can mix or buy proper formula.
Feeding more often than suggested can lead to digestion problems.
References
- Photo Credit Rat image by txori from Fotolia.com
