You should plan to seprarate them at 4 weeks old. You can leave the girls with mom if you want, but with my rat I only put her with the girls for a few hours a day. Mother rats get really sick of their babies.
You'll have to sex the rats. The problem is that it is hard to sex them, even at four weeks; the males' parts don't really grow by then. We can help you out when the time comes.
How old are the babies now?
8 is a good number. Female rats only have 12 nipples, so there's plenty of milk to go around.
There is a problem about baby rats; they need homes. If you really have to, you can give them back to the pet store; just know that they'll end up as snake food. They are grown, frozen till they die, and sold to snake owners. If the pet store says that they'll put them up for adoption, for sure, then I would get it in writing. And then check up on them. But if I were you, I'd ask around, try to pull some strings, give them to cousins and neices and nephews and anyone that you've met who you think will give them a good home. Also if I were you and I could, I would keep one of the babies (but it would have to be a girl).
(sigh) have fun with them while they're the age they are. They grow up so fast. I wish I could do it again.
If you wanna see how fast, go to: http://ratgrowth.homestead.com/index.html
Look to the left side and click on WEEK 1 to WEEK 4.
They are soooooo cute!
They also have some info here.
Lila
