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 When the kittens are born, they do not have a coat of fur.  They depend on mom to provide warmth.  It is important that baby ratlets remain warm.  There is also a little blood from the process of birthing as well.  as long as it is spotting and not a lot of blood, then this is normal and no cause for alarm.  If there is a lot of blood or it continues after the ratlets are born, you should take the mother and kittens to the vet.  Excessive bleeding will cause death.

If you look closely at this kitten, you will see a white strip near it's mid-section.  This is milk in the ratlets belly!  You can see it through their translucent skin.  It is believed that a female will look to see who has a the white ring.  It tells her who is "full" or not.  Sometimes, with larger litters you will see does separate their litters into groups.  This behavior is thought to ensure that all of the kittens get an equal share, instead of certain more aggressive kittens nursing more than others.  

This is a picture of a newborn kitten at 24 hours old.  They have loose skin, skin over their eyes, very tiny ears that are pressed tight to the body, tiny webbed like feet with little definition and a small tail.  

By the second day of life, their skin is not so loose and their ears pop away from their heads.  Already their little feet are starting to develop into longer toes.  

By three days, they can hold their head up.  This kitten is sniffing the air, a rats best sense, to find it's other littermates.  

This four day old kitten will eventually become a black top eared capped hairless with a diamond shaped head spot.  You can tell what coat type a rat will be by looking at their whiskers.  If the whiskers shoot out straight, the rat will be a smooth coat.  If the whiskers are kind of curly, they will most likely be a rex and if they are super super curly they will be hairless.  You will also notice a difference in the coat of rex in comparison to a smooth coat once they start to come in a few days.  

Day 6 The kittens are developing color which is pigment produced by skin cells.  They have more mobility and their ears and toes are longer and more detailed.  Finally, you can see more of an eyelid, although they do not open their eyes yet for several days. 

This black kitten is seven days old and a dumbo eared self smooth coat.  He does have a little white on his feet.  They call this "mittens".  By the time the kittens are seven days old, they are really trucking around.  They will stay in the nest for the most part, but when they are placed in an open area, they search for litter mates, the nest and mom by lifting their head and crawling around.  When they get to this age, I like to spend more time with them in the pouch.  I talk to them, and touch them gently so they get used to my smell.

By the second week of life the coat is starting to come in.  Rex kittens have a slight wave to their coat (right) and smooth coated kittens have very shiny smooth fur or hair.  

 Another exciting development that occurs between 12-14 days, is opening of the eyes.  Once they are open, watch out!  The kittens start to feel more ambitious about leaving the nest and traveling a bit.

Once the kittens can see, and leave the nest, they also start nibbling on dry food.  We offer lots of veggies and fruits each day.  Mom brings things back to the nest, so the kittens get to taste a little of everything.

The boy on the left is a male Russian blue capped possum faced dumbo rex and the female on the right is a Russian Blue top ear Berkshire rex.  By four weeks, the ratties are very desirous of attention by their humans and sexually mature.  It is important that they are separated by gender in cages so that there is no accidental pregnancies.  We gently handle this age group and spend about an hour or two with them daily in the morning and night.  We talk to them, and continue to use a pouch, because this will help them learn our smell, to trust us and develop socially with humans until they go home to their new families.  

In order to separate the males and females properly, you must know what each gender looks like.  The best way to determine gender is to look at their body parts! lol  This is a male (above) by four weeks you can clearly see the scrotum.  

The picture (above) shows a female.