Brenna is pregnant. Moving to pics and tails

[Willow Bean]

That's the project for today... Asa said that he will work on it this weekend if I'm not feeling better today. I've been sick the last few days. Ended up coming home early yesterday and I have today off.

 

[Willow Bean]

With as nice and lean as Brenna is... how long will I have to wait to see if the mating took? I've been holding my breath for almost a week now and I keep thinking that she looks a little bigger and her tum looks a little, tiny bit more rounded. I'm going to break out the kitchen scale tonight and start watching her weight to see if we have any gains. I'm not thinking that we are going to get any signs of weight gain, but I hope that maybe it will mean that it didn't take.

Keep fingers crossed!

 

[Dahlas]

Well I got Piper and 23 days later she had her litter.....She started looking a little rounder at around 17 days but it didn't dawn on me until 20 days that "oh no" she looks pregnant.........Every one else began to weigh them and they could see steady weight gain from a week or so on......
How long ago was the deed? Mark it on the calender and start counting......

 

[Willow Bean]

The deed was on the 26th, so... tomorrow will be 1 week. her tummy is a tiny bit rounder on the left side when I "dangle-rat" her, Supporting her feet, of course :wink:

 

[Dahlas]

You should know more by next week....but if you allready see a bit rounder I would say you are having wee ones.........

 

[Dahlas]

Have we seen pictures of Brenna and the perspective father?

 

[Willow Bean]

Still going to keep fingers crossed, but I'll start setting up a nice nursery cage and getting some nice nest boxes saved up. I'll also start saving up more fleece scraps, get another couple of water bottles and just get ready. I already let the vet know that we might have a litter that will need a check up in a month to a month and a half. Just trying to make sure everything is ready... just in case. I already moved Maverick and Baby Girl into another room so that Brenna won't get any URI... another just in case.

 

[Willow Bean]

There are some pics of Brenna here :http://jorats.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2440

And Moosh here: http://jorats.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3358

 

[Dahlas]

Oh yes I remember seeing those pictures....beautiful ratties. I hope everything goes good...keep us posted .......

 

[Willow Bean]

^_^ Thank you! I am very proud of my furkids! I hope everything goes well, and also that I don't have to hope everything goes well... :? but I will keep everyone posted!!

 

[oibeerpunk]

aww i hope everything goes okay!

 

[minnow]

I'll be waiting eagerly for updates, and hoping that no matter which way things go Brenna stays healthy.

Though if she does have kits, I seem to have an awfully big cage with only two in it... :lol:

 

[Fidget]

Oboy... I hope it doesn't 'take', but if it does we'll all just hope & pray that Brenna has an easy time of it and she & her babies are ok. At least mom & babies will get all the care & help needed during the pregnancy and after. And the babies will start out in good loving home and be well well-socialized.

 

[user 78]

I've started calling around for cost of a spay and it looks like I'm looking at between $200 and $300!! It might be less expensive in the short-run to let her have the babies...

Willow's pregnancy cost a lot...
we spent $150 on an emergency visit after 2 hours of labor.
I was literally minutes from spending another $300 on an emergency c-section and spay.
The next day we spent another $45 on a follow-up visit to check on things.

I would think that given your past experience that you would know that 'in the short run' isn't always less expensive. Yes, dropping $200-$300 in one go is difficult and can really strain any budget. In the long run though, your girl would be much healthier, this would never be a concern again for her, and neither you or her would have to go through the pain and possible loss of another litter. 4-5mo is quite young to be having a litter, and there's a very real possibility that she could have complications because of her age. She's barely a teenager at this point, so think of it as a 15yr old having kids.

While I know accidents do happen, you may want to rethink owning both sexes if you can't get one or the other altered. It's a ticking time bomb, and as has been proven, it's not always in your control to stop it from happening.

 

[Willow Bean]

I've started calling around for cost of a spay and it looks like I'm looking at between $200 and $300!! It might be less expensive in the short-run to let her have the babies...

Willow's pregnancy cost a lot...
we spent $150 on an emergency visit after 2 hours of labor.
I was literally minutes from spending another $300 on an emergency c-section and spay.
The next day we spent another $45 on a follow-up visit to check on things.

I would think that given your past experience that you would know that 'in the short run' isn't always less expensive. Yes, dropping $200-$300 in one go is difficult and can really strain any budget. In the long run though, your girl would be much healthier, this would never be a concern again for her, and neither you or her would have to go through the pain and possible loss of another litter. 4-5mo is quite young to be having a litter, and there's a very real possibility that she could have complications because of her age. She's barely a teenager at this point, so think of it as a 15yr old having kids.

While I know accidents do happen, you may want to rethink owning both sexes if you can't get one or the other altered. It's a ticking time bomb, and as has been proven, it's not always in your control to stop it from happening.

In addition to it being something entirely out of reach for me financially, I am extremely against abortion and by this point I would definatly consider it to be aborting since she is now almost a third of her way through. This wasn't an easy decision for me to not keep her unaltered and I battled it through with myself for several days before deciding that $300 isn't something I can come up with out of nowhere. I am already working 56+ hours each week and am severely stressed. Even with as much as I work and as much as I make, I am barely sqeaking by. Asa pays for all of the bills so that I can get out of debt. #00 isn't anything that I can come up with and I did ask around to try to borrow money but it isn't do-able.

As for not owning both sexes, the only rats that I have brought in for over a year have been females. It would be $600 to $900 to have the boys neutered and at 20 months, 17 months and 16 months it wouldn't be a wise decision to make financially. We already plan to adopt out all of the boys and will try to keep all of the girls or as many as we can handle.

Also, Brenna maybe a bit older since we don't know her birthdate. We got her a week or so before Christmas and she looked between 2 and 3 months then. I'm hoping that her age won't factor in too much.

Like I said before, I am extremely stressed out and Brenna's "is she or isn't she" isn't helping. I picked up another day each week at work (another 12 hour shift) which ups me to 68 hours per week of work so that I will be able to afford anything that happens.

I didn't try for this to happen but I will not go against my morals unless Brenna's life is in danger.

 

[Willow Bean]

Also, the only way that I could "rethink" owning both sexes would be to rehome the boys (In this area it seems like if you have rats then you have snakes. Apart from the people who had wanted a baby from Willow's litter I've heard of 4 people who have rats and those people let them breed like crazy and then sell them to pet stores or snake owners for profit.) or spend a MASSIVE amount of money having them altered fairly late in their lives at a vet clinic that knows nothing about rats. They didn't have any rat prices on file, so they quoted me for a guinea pig or a rabbit. One would imagine that one or all of my babies would die on the operating table or soon there-after. No thank you. They will be living out their lives with me and then we won't be getting more males.


***ETA: misunderstandings and stress don't mix well... I know now that JavaKittie was just trying to be helpful and not accusing. At the time I took everything wrong and I appologise for the misunderstanding. :hugs:

 

[user 78]

Not acquiring any more of one sex is what I meant by rethinking owning both. In all honesty, I would suggest waiting to get any more females at this point. Your males are older, it would make infinitely more sense to have them live out their lives with you, not to up and rehome them. They're still a risk at this point if you can't get either altered, so adding more females to the mix would be upping the odds.

 

[Willow Bean]

Once I get the all clear from Asa I will be saving up during the rest of the pregnancy and during the raising of the babies to buy another FN. The boys will be being moved into the new one and will be moved into another room away from the girls. Both FNs will be totally modded so that NO ONE gets in or out unless they are put there.

Brenna's tummy indicates that she is, indeed, pregnant. It's starting to get a tiny bit bigger each day snd is already getting a rounded shape to it. Her tummy is also firmer, where as Emma's is squishy. I haven't pressed hard because I don't want to hurt anyone, but I wanted to know if it was just chub or if it was babies. I'm really starting to get excited for the babies now, imagining their cute little dumbo ears and their sweet little noses, paws and tails. :thud: it's almost too much cuteness!!

I spoke with a few rescues and shelters in the area and they siad that I can post fliers if I need to find homes for anyone not adopted. There is only one rescue around here that takes in rats and she hasn't seen many, so I hope she will have a list when the time comes of people who want to adopt rats. ^_^ Most of the people who wanted a baby from Willow's litter are still wanting to adopt, even though I'm considering only adopting out in same sex pairs. ^_^ Most of the adopting Moms and Dads are okay with this. We are still wanting to keep as many females as we can, but, unfortunatly, the boys will have to be adopted out as we can't afford the thousands of dollars it is sure to cost to have them neutered. :cry:

It looks like I have most of the loose ends wrapped up pretty well for now. I'll still have lots of questions, I'm sure, but hopefully everything will turn out well and we will have an easy time birthing and raising.

 

[Willow Bean]

Oh!! what is a safe way to keep the cage heated? WE plan on moving them into the bedroom so that we can keep Brenna and the babes nice and warm. We have baseboard heat and run a humidifier at night, is that okay? we want everyone to be warm but not too warm as well as keeping the air moist, but not too moist! LOL!

 

[Cityratt]

oh Brenna....

The gang and I are keepin you guys in our thoughts, keep us posted.