Do i need to handle rat babies?

PLEASE DONT BREED YOUR RATS.

Pretty please?

There is SO MUCH to learn about rat genetics. If your rats are from a pet store, they could have all kinds of horrible genetic traits that breeding them together will bring out. (Such as cancers, birth defects, etc.) If you dont know that you can handle newborn rats, there is NO WAY you've done enough studying!

I ran a rattery for years. It's a LOT of work. From two rats, you could end up with 25. If you don't know what your getting yourself into, you're just putting a ton of little lives at risk, and it's not fair. It's CRUEL.

If you want to breed them badly enough, you need to be responsible enough to study HARD for months-- YES, months! -- before pairing any rats. And all the information you need is on the internet, and easy to find. Dont just read one person's articles, read a TON. You can never learn TOO much.

Breeder quality rats never eat the babies unless they are starving, or the babies are already dead. You need to handle the babies from day one to achieve proper socialization. But please, please do not breed without experienced help. Breeding rats is much more difficult and expensive than you would think, and sooo many things can go wrong that could kill your rats!