Is my young rat male or female? (Pics)

[ssrat]

Helloo! I bought my newest baby exactly a week ago and this has kept me up at night.

This is what the pet store told me: They do not guarantee sex, but the employee I was speaking to said, in his opinion, this baby is a male. I asked how old ratty is, the employee asked, I'm assuming, the manager of the store at what age they get their rats. The manager said no younger than 5 weeks, 8 weeks in general.

I've been scouring google searches the past week, studying images of the different sexes to compare to my own ratty, and I'm stumped. If the rat really is over 5 weeks old, information I've found says it would be easy to tell the gender at this age. Trust me, I've looked through every picture and website about sexing rats etc. google has to offer. I just cannot tell!!!

I had 3 male rats prior to my newest, hoping to have 4 male rats. If this is a female, I need to work something out quickly. Someone with a trained eye, please help me out!

Attached are the pictures I managed to get of the poor, squirmy baby.
Thank you~~

 

[ssrat]

Just found the picture that initially made me question if baby is male/female.

 

[Dena]

Female. Males would have balls showing by that age. Also, how close the parts are....looks female to me! You can tell at birth of you know what to look for. Also, if they have nipples, it's definitely female.

 

[Dena]

Also, that size, she's definitely a couple of months old. DO NOT put her with the males. You will have an oops litter, and it only takes once, a couple of seconds for the male to get her pregnant.

 

[ssrat]

Female. Males would have balls showing by that age. Also, how close the parts are....looks female to me! You can tell at birth of you know what to look for. Also, if they have nipples, it's definitely female.

Uh oh, just what I didn't want to hear... I did search and search for nipples, even dampened the fur with water and could not find any sign of them. Also invaded her privacy and moved stuff around to find a second opening to no avail. Maybe I have a case of researcher bias. I'll look into having her spayed ASAP, I don't think I could get rid of her and it is my responsibility to be responsible. Thank you.

With that said, if anyone else takes a look and thinks there's a chance he's a male, let me know hahaha. I'm hanging on to that hope!

 

[SQ]

That last pic looks like a vaginal opening under her urethra ……. testicles can be withdrawn into the body cavity and some boys do not drop one or both of their testicles - requiring surgical removal (neutering)
but she looks like a baby girl to me too

 

[ssrat]

That last pic looks like a vaginal opening under her urethra ……. testicles can be withdrawn into the body cavity and some boys do not drop one or both of their testicles - requiring surgical removal (neutering)
but she looks like a baby girl to me too

Thanks for responding I will have to call the vet tomorrow!

 

[ssrat]

This is a dumb question, but my rat does not have nipples. I searched and searched again but nothing. Is it possible for a female to not have nipples? A gene mutation? Is it a gene commonly found in fancy rats?

 

[Dena]

Hmmmm I dunno. I haven't seen it, but I'm no expert. They can sometimes be hard to see, but I'd think you would see them. Best way to tell, is to have the vet confirm. Then you can talk about spay at the same time.

 

[ssrat]

Hmmmm I dunno. I haven't seen it, but I'm no expert. They can sometimes be hard to see, but I'd think you would see them. Best way to tell, is to have the vet confirm. Then you can talk about spay at the same time.

Hopefully I can get in there without an appointment tomorrow. Thanks for your help, I was so desperate. Still a bit nervous but all will be solved

 

[lilspaz68]

Definitely a girl. By 3-4 weeks balls are very obvious and the space where they develop is not there. As for nipples some girls have tiny tiny ones you might not see at this age. I'll put up my sexing pics so you can see how people sex tiny babies as well as 5 week olds.

5 week old girl

5 week old boy

 

[lilspaz68]

20 day old girl

20 day old boy (notice the space?)

 

[Noel]

Helloo! I bought my newest baby exactly a week ago and this has kept me up at night.

This is what the pet store told me: They do not guarantee sex, but the employee I was speaking to said, in his opinion, this baby is a male. I asked how old ratty is, the employee asked, I'm assuming, the manager of the store at what age they get their rats. The manager said no younger than 5 weeks, 8 weeks in general.

I've been scouring google searches the past week, studying images of the different sexes to compare to my own ratty, and I'm stumped. If the rat really is over 5 weeks old, information I've found says it would be easy to tell the gender at this age. Trust me, I've looked through every picture and website about sexing rats etc. google has to offer. I just cannot tell!!!

I had 3 male rats prior to my newest, hoping to have 4 male rats. If this is a female, I need to work something out quickly. Someone with a trained eye, please help me out!

Attached are the pictures I managed to get of the poor, squirmy baby.
Thank you~~
View attachment 11732 View attachment 11733 View attachment 11734 View attachment 11735

I think you have a female. When i got my second male, he was the same age and already had big balls.

 

[Noel]

I think you have a female. When i got my second male, he was the same age and already had big balls.

I think you have a female. When I got my second male dumbo, he was the same age as yours and already had obvious big balls.

 

[ssrat]

Definitely a girl. By 3-4 weeks balls are very obvious and the space where they develop is not there. As for nipples some girls have tiny tiny ones you might not see at this age. I'll put up my sexing pics so you can see how people sex tiny babies as well as 5 week olds.

5 week old girl


5 week old boy

I think you have a female. When I got my second male dumbo, he was the same age as yours and already had obvious big balls.

Thank you guys. I think I was in denial for a little bit, didn't want to believe I threw a young female with my 3 boys Will confirm tomorrow as that is the earliest I could see a vet.

 

[Dena]

Let us know what the verdict is! What's her name?