Causes of High Mortality in Baby Bamboo Rats and Prevention and Treatment Methods

According to relevant statistics, the survival rate of "baby bamboo rats" is relatively low. So what are the reasons? Why is bamboo rat farming not as easy to get started with as pig farming? There are mainly the following aspects.

Mother Bamboo Rats Do Not Know How to Care for Their Young

Some female bamboo rats do not know how to care for their baby bamboo rats, resulting in the death of baby bamboo rats that cannot get colostrum. So what causes mother bamboo rats to be unable to care for their young properly? Like humans and other animals, nursing young is an instinct for bamboo rats, but bamboo rats can also be like some new mothers - giving birth for the first time and not knowing how to feed their babies. The difference is that humans are advanced animals and know how to seek help and advice. Bamboo rats are the same. If a new mother bamboo rat does not know how to nurse her newborn bamboo rats, the keeper should assist the mother in feeding the baby bamboo rats. It is worth noting that it must be a keeper whose scent the new mother bamboo rat is familiar with, otherwise it will backfire. Therefore, try to let the mother bamboo rat use her own instincts for the first nursing.

Mother Bamboo Rats Eating Their Young

The reasons for this are manifold. First: environmental influences, such as fireworks during the Spring Festival, creating a noisy environment that makes the mother bamboo rat feel unsafe. In this situation, the mother bamboo rat may kill and eat her newborn baby bamboo rats. Second: the baby bamboo rats carry a scent unfamiliar to the mother. The mother bamboo rat has a very sensitive sense of smell, which she also uses to distinguish enemies from friends. As mentioned in the first reason, if the scent of a stranger remains on the baby bamboo rats, the mother bamboo rat will think they are not her young and bite them all to death.

Death of Baby Bamboo Rats Caused by Difficult Birth

During pregnancy, some bamboo rat farmers do not know how to scientifically feed the expectant mother bamboo rats. They think that since the bamboo rat is about to give birth, they should find ways to feed the mother bamboo rat well, causing the mother bamboo rat to become obese. The baby bamboo rats also have too high a body weight during development, so that when the mother bamboo rat gives birth, she cannot deliver the baby bamboo rats, causing the death of both the mother bamboo rat and the baby bamboo rats. It is only necessary to pay attention to scientific feeding during the mother rat's pregnancy.

Stillbirth and Apparent Death in Baby Bamboo Rats

Bamboo rats can also experience stillbirth of baby bamboo rats due to unscientific feeding during pregnancy. Death of baby bamboo rats caused by this situation cannot be helped. Therefore, the focus here should be on the phenomenon of "apparent death in bamboo rats." Some baby bamboo rats are born not moving. Some cases are caused by the fetal membrane not being removed. Under normal circumstances, the mother bamboo rat will handle this for the baby bamboo rats herself, but sometimes, because the mother bamboo rat does not handle it in time or lacks experience, the baby bamboo rats cannot breathe, causing their death. For this situation, bamboo rat farmers can use the method of artificial mouth-to-mouth breathing to rescue newborn baby bamboo rats. Through scientific artificial methods, most baby bamboo rats can be rescued.

Death of Baby Bamboo Rats Caused by Incomplete Nutrition

During the growth process of baby bamboo rats, in addition to being fed by the mother bamboo rat, the baby bamboo rats will gradually be raised by bamboo rat farmers. If the bamboo rat farmers lack scientific management during the feeding process, it will cause insufficient nutrient intake for the bamboo rats, and the baby bamboo rats will have weak resistance, causing their death.

Of course, there are many other causes of death in baby bamboo rats, such as accidental death from predators like weasels, which will not be explained one by one here.