Is my rat pregnant?

[Monique]

Hello,
I bought this rat from the pet store on Monday January 20th, 2020. When I first got her (and her sister) they told me they were about 4-5 weeks old. I brought her and her sister home. I notice that the females compared to my males (separate cages) were noticeable longer so I called the pet store the following day to ask their age again. I got a different person who told me they were 8-9 weeks old. I noticed one of the girls was adding a noticeable amount of weight compared to the other and she was acting different. She was trying to move all the bedding and collect the nesting material I had in there and pack it into her spot that she dug. She was 168g yesterday and today she was 178.1g. (Her sister was 135g yesterday and 150.1g today). These are my first rats as pets and I was hoping they would be older and I would have been able to do more research before one of them got pregnant. Is she pregnant or just growing? The one photo is from the top of her and the second one I gave her a treat and got her to lean back so I can get her belly.

 

[lilspaz68]

Keep weighing your girls daily at the same time each day and we will see if the weight increases steadily (regular baby growth) or if if it continues a steady increase on top of the steady gain. Do you know if there was any adult males in with your girls?

 

[Monique]

I weigh them at 8:30pm. I began weighing her on January 25th. I do not know if any males were with her or her sister. I just bought them on January 20th and when I asked the pet store more information about my ladies (since I didn’t get the correct information the last time) I found out the pet store just got both these ladies on January 17th. They only had these girls for 3 days before I bought them.

 

[SQ]

make sure you write down the daily weights

 

[Monique]

Okay so daily weight for Nibbles (my girl I think I bought pregnant). She is showing most of the signs when you google search “How to tell if my rat is pregnant”. Her weight went:
Day 1: 168g
Day 2: 178g
Day 3: 178.6g
Day 4: 183g
Day 5: 184g
Day 6: 184g

and her sister that is the same age, same genetics, and same amount of activity went:
Day 1: 135g
Day 2: 150g
Day 3: 142g
Day 4: 145g
Day 5: 150g
Day 6: 150g

 

[lilspaz68]

This looks like pretty normal baby growing not necessarily baby growing babies inside of her weight gain. When exactly did you get her, and we'll figure out how long you have to continue weighing her.

 

[Monique]

I got her January 20th, 2020. She has been nesting and her nipples got more noticeable so it has me concerned, but her weight was the same for a few days so I’m confused.

 

[lilspaz68]

okay so its been 11 days. Keep weighing. Its usually in the last week you see the crazy weight gain. Right now it all looks pretty normal but they can fool even the best of us. 10-12 more days to suffer through until you know you are in the clear.

 

[Monique]

Okay thank you. I am worried she is missing her sister, but all the other females I have don’t act like she did. I hope nothing is wrong with her. I would rather her be pregnant then her be sick. Although it would be nice to have neither and her be in the cage with the girls.

 

[Rocket99]

Hard to tell, but was she alone with an intact male for more than 2 seconds? Male rats are not known for their stamina, lol. Ok, but seriously...Is she neurotically building a nest?

 

[SQ]

Hopefully she is spending a lot of time with her sister and friends.
Usually girls are only separated in the last week of pregnancy, when they gain a great deal of weight and look pregnant …... however if she is only having a couple of babies (average litter is 12 to 14 babies but they can have 2 to 26) she might not gain a lot of weight and might not look pregnant

 

[Monique]

She is building a nest. I have her nesting material and she brought it into her hide. I don’t know if she was in with a male because it would have been before I got her.

 

[Monique]

Hopefully she is spending a lot of time with her sister and friends.
Usually girls are only separated in the last week of pregnancy, when they gain a great deal of weight and look pregnant …... however if she is only having a couple of babies (average litter is 12 to 14 babies but they can have 2 to 26) she might not gain a lot of weight and might not look pregnant

I separated her in fear that she would be pregnant and have the babies then be too stress and eat them because of the other girls so I have them separated. I don’t think she’ll have a large litter if I did get her pregnant. I just know that the only difference between the girls is one is dark grey and one is light grey (and of course one is WAY bigger looking). The one I think is pregnant is 34g bigger than her sister. I don’t know how far along she could be though.

 

[Dena]

I'd put her in the cage with the others until you know for sure, or until she starts showing. Stress can make rats sick. She probably misses her sister.

 

[lilspaz68]

You can keep the 2 sisters together for now. The weight gain for possible pregnancy is in the early stages now so just keep weighing and recording. The one girl is much smaller than the other so you are looking at relative weight gain rather than total weight gain between the girls. My very non-pregnant baby boys will "nest" too. It's a potential sign but just dragging bedding to a house isn't always a true sign. It's when all the signs plus the weight gain patterns are there that you really can suspect or determine pregnancy.

 

[Dena]

Almost all of my rats will drag stuff and make a nest. My big ole fat boy, taco especially will snatch strips of tissue paper (this seems to be a favorite, probably because of the crinkle sound it makes) and bounce off to his "nest" with it, and fluff it to get it just how he likes it, and come back for more. Macaroni, my 2.5 year old female, who hasn't been pregnant in over 2 years, will still hoard any and all junk she can, and put it in her "nest". As soon as I put fleece on her pan on the bottom shelf (the one her nest is in), she will bite it, rip it, and stuff it in her coke box. She has even stuffed popsicle sticks, plastic spoons, toys, food, a new rat (not joking), anything she finds she wants to keep in her nest! It's really cute. So the nesting thing could really be her personality.

 

[lilspaz68]

How are the weights going?