mama acting mental after cleaning cage

[hayleyj]

I got Xena about a month ago. She is very young and small but low and behold she was pregnant She gave birth yesterday and from what ive seen has been a wonderful mom. Her cage had been long overdue for a cleaning so I just cleaned it and changed her bedding. I safely placed mama first then all her babies on a piece of fleece outside her cage. I cleaned it and returned them to the cage and now she Is going absolutely mental frantically running around the cage and climbing the bars. I saw no harm in cleaning her cage but is she angry because I "ruined" her nest? Ive tried showing her to her babies and that theyre all there but she wont stop?

[Rhian33]

I'm guessing she was grateful for the clean and was just checking out what had changed as it smelled different. I'm sure she'll settle. I wouldn't worry. It's normal for rats to go nuts exploring when you clean their cage.

[cyber ratty]

When my mums are due to give birth, I put them into a clean cage, and then don't clean them out for two weeks even though it gets smelly. When I do clean it, I still leave a handful of old nest material so that the babies will know where home is.

I suspect Xena was panicking because her nest had gone - if you can access any of her old substrate, I would put a few handfuls in next to her new nest. Not just to reassure her, but to provide the babies with a target to head for if they accidentally get dropped outside of the nest.

[Rhian33]

Ah, thanks Mary. I had made the assumption that the nest had been retained then returned to the cage