Embryonic Diapause (delayed implantation) how rare is it?

[Petunia]

please tell me its' very very rare ok.
My momma PEW Paige, the girl who had a litter 11/22, is chunking up really fast the past couple of days.

Hopefully it's just from eating too much but um, if she were to be pregnant what would I look for?

she came to me in late Dec- the 29th I think it was. Her nipples were still prominent from nursing, now you can't see them unless you go looking for them, know what I mean?

but that sleek belly is now a pot belly and I am worried she's gonna have another litter. I know it *can* happen, but really, how often does it?

I only have girls, there's no chance she's been with any intact males. The person I got her from is very careful, I doubt she had any access to males before she got here, other than the one that got pregnant in the first place- I'll go find her back story and link to it


but in the meantime, should I cut back on her food so she doesn't get fat- or feed her a different diet in case she's pregnant?

 

[Rissa]

Isn't implantation only delayed by a week or so? If thats the case then she couldn't be pregnant if she gave birth 11/22

 

[Petunia]

I dunno, I looked it up and it says it can be delayed up to six months
:shock:

also found a case where a litter was born 11/20 and the mom had a second litter 1/10

oh lordy, please just be chubby, there Paige!

 

[Rissa]

I like this site because she does a good job of researching and quoting where her information came from.

http://www.ratbehavior.org/PostPartumConception.htm

 

[ashana]

Standard is normally up to 14 days i think.
Normal gestation is 21-23 days but can be up to 25. If delayed implantation has occurred it is estimated that by day 35 the babies should arrive. I think 6 months is a bit far fetched.

 

[Petunia]

um I think you are misunderstanding...????

she has not been with any intact males since she was rescued from the petstore.

I am talking about her retaining fertilized embryos from that first/only mating, not a second mating.

I don't need to know when she can conceive, because she hasn't been with any male rats.

I need to know if she's carrying embryos from before, how will I know?

how can I tell normal weight gain/growth from pregnancy?

 

[Petunia]

Standard is normally up to 14 days i think.
Normal gestation is 21-23 days but can be up to 25. If delayed implantation has occurred it is estimated that by day 35 the babies should arrive. I think 6 months is a bit far fetched.

ok is this for the initial pregnancy or a subsequent one?


are you saying that if she has stored embryos, they should be implanted by two weeks after the birth of the first litter, and the she'd give birth about 3 weeks later?

in which case, she would have had the second litter just as soon as the first one was being weaned?


I am terrible at math, I have math anxiety, baaaaaaad so the dates and stuff confuse me

if there's no chance she's gonna have more babies I can just go to bed and not worry about it

if there is *any* chance she could have a second litter I've got a lot of work to do!!

 

[ashana]

Did you rescue her on the 29th Dec?
If so, then she may just be pregnant, that was only 18 days ago.

Rats go into estrus approx 10 hours after giving birth, then not again until around time of weaning at 29 days. SO if she had mated within 10 hours of giving birth to the first litter then the implantation can delay for around 10-14 days (max) so expected delivery time from the birth of the first litter would be 35 days (max) (average is around 31 for delayed implantation). So approx 4 and a bit weeks after mating instead of 3.

It really depends on when you took her from the pet shop. If it was back in Nov then there is no chance she is pregnant but if it was not until late December then she may have got pregnant as weaning on her bubs begun.

 

[lilspaz68]

You're fine Althea...they don't store embryo's from a previous mating they only delay implanting the eggs for a week or so. Your baby PEW girl is much older than 4.5 weeks isn't she? You're safe :thumbup:

 

[Petunia]

yes the baby is about 8 weeks old now

ok whew!! thanks!!