What do the babies look like?

Bernice and Casey's drawing of a mother and baby underground.

How Does the Ord's Kangaroo Rat Look After Its Young?

The kangaroo rat usually has 2 to 4 babies at atime. But they can also have 1 to 6 babies at a time. Females may have as many as 39 litters in their lives.
The young kangaroo rat babies have no teeth and no hair. They can not see or hear because their eyes and ears are closed. The babies are wrinkled and different shades of pink. The mother raises them in a burrow where they are born and feeds them very nutritious concentrated milk. When they are about one month old, they leave the burrow. At that time they weigh 40 to 50 grams. When they are between two and three months old, they can have babies of their own. They don’t live very long, but some in captivity have lived up to 5 years.

live mount photo by Shayna

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