rattie babies? :| HELP.

[cheyenneobvious]

Okay so here is the story of what exactly happened.
:gaah:

Me and my fiancee's friend wanted to get rats so we coached her into not getting them from petsmart and getting them from kajiji if possible or from rattie owners that couldn't keep their rats anymore. She agreed and we started looking into rats for her to purchase and take home as pets. She found 3 neutered boys that she instantly fell in love with and soon started looking into how she could make them her new pets. When she messaged the guy/girl about the rats they said that the rats were neutered and healthy but they just couldn't afford to feed them anymore so she agreed to take them in. WELL.. they didn't come in a cage so I took them in for a couple days (maybe 3 or 4) until she could get an appropriate sized cage for her new pets. We had them separated just in case they weren't neutered and didn't think anything of it. Well, on the second day my mother decided it would be a good idea to put the rats in the same room as the other ones, and pressed the two cages together to "make the room look neater and take up less room"

To make the story short, one of our girls is pregnant now for sure, and I'm in question about two others. I don't even know where to begin now! I have the three girls in question all in separate cages and I guess I'm asking you guys what the next step is? I read that rats cant impregnate other rats through cage bars, but 3 out of our 4 girls have huge nipples and are getting really territorial, the one I'm certain on that is preggo has started to nest and get very aggressive when you touch her belly

I read that I have to separate them as soon as I assume they are pregnant, but I haven't found much information on what to do next.. should I keep them separate from each other just in case? What do they need? ect ect.

I'm no longer taking in "neutered rats". NO BOYS ALOUD

 

[lisa1966]

I don't have rats yet so can't help you but wanted to reply and commiserate. That is so crazy that you think more that more than one of your girls might be pregnant from supposedly "neutred" males. Wonder if the person from kijiji deliberately mislead your friend or didn't know herself that the one or more of the boys wasn't neutred. If she did know, why lie? Strange....
This may a silly question but I have never had a rat, can't you tell if a rat has been neutred? With a dog it is obvious but it is because rats are so small it is more difficult to see the missing parts??

Good luck with your girls!
Lisa

 

[Chel]

This may a silly question but I have never had a rat, can't you tell if a rat has been neutred? With a dog it is obvious but it is because rats are so small it is more difficult to see the missing parts??
Lisa

Usually a man rats *ahem* testes are hard to miss, BUT if they are young rats they may not be as noticeable, and if they were recently neutered they could still be potent, I believe it is about 5 weeks after a neuter when both sexes and be together.

 

[cheyenneobvious]

I don't have rats yet so can't help you but wanted to reply and commiserate. That is so crazy that you think more that more than one of your girls might be pregnant from supposedly "neutred" males. Wonder if the person from kijiji deliberately mislead your friend or didn't know herself that the one or more of the boys wasn't neutred. If she did know, why lie? Strange....
This may a silly question but I have never had a rat, can't you tell if a rat has been neutred? With a dog it is obvious but it is because rats are so small it is more difficult to see the missing parts??

Good luck with your girls!
Lisa

I honestly have never had boys before and stupidly trusted these people..
I thought that maybe they were still suppose to look like they have balls, but that they were smaller then normal? or they didn't have any sperm in them? I don't know.. I was wayy too trustworthy .

 

[ryelle]

you need to tell your mother it is dangerous to put new rats cages up against your current ones. Rats do get territorial especially when there is new rats around, and you don't know the temperament of the new rats. Tails, feet and other parts of the rat can be seriously damaged if one in the other cage grabs hold of it.

I thought they couldn't get pregnant through bar spacing either... :?

 

[lilspaz68]

Well lets start with the boys and their neuter...the balls shrivel up but they are there a bit....but it takes a while to get to that stage. These boys do they have torpedo's or just short missiles?

Rats cannot get pregnant through the bars...its physically impossible. The female rat in heat arches her back and pelvis and lifts her tail (lordosis) so that the male can clasp around her and mount her...there's no way to do this through the bars. How big is the bar spacing is another one. Your girls may be getting territorial having strange males in "their space" and even virgin females can show nipples.

IF you think one of the sexes slipped through the bars of the others cage then you can only tell by weighing them every day at the same time looking for pregnancy weight gain.

 

[user 1405]

I don't think you have much to worry about here, what the others say is true and according to my reading material, females tend to get very territorial and may exhibit other signs of 'pregnancy' (even when they aren't) when they detect that males are around. It would be wise to temporarily move the males to another location in the home and see if they settle down. If they do, your boys may be intact as that's the only thing that'll drive females to that type of breeding behavior.

 

[lilspaz68]

not quite true...territorial behavior is towards "strange" rats not necessarily intact males.

 

[user 1405]

not quite true...territorial behavior is towards "strange" rats not necessarily intact males.

Heh, I suppose you're right there as well. However, seeing as they are males as well, it could be triggering some sort of hormonal response as well.

 

[Joanne]

If your girls are pregnant, you don't need to separate them until you think they're ready to give birth. They'll be happier with each other until then.

Can you take some good pictures of their bellys? And of the boy's parts? That way some experienced eyes could give you their opinion.
Never say never, but most likely they couldn't have gotten pregnant. (Fingers crossed!)

 

[cheyenneobvious]

okay im going to try and answer all of these questions
the boys are no longer in our hands, they are at my friends house all settled in as of last sunday.
the cage we have the girls in is a critter nation and the boys were in this: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... =Small+Pet

i have warned my mom about how dangerous this was as soon as i came home to it, dont worry i know this isnt proper or at all safe for any of the rats.

i have held boys before and their balls were massive, these guys had them still, but they were medium sized? so thats why i assume they aren't neutered.

since it is okay that they are together until she pops i guess i will put them back together?
im just scared she will have the babies and im not home, i go to school from 8am-5pm every day and my fiancee doesnt really know what he is doing.. at all.

 

[jorats]

If the girls live in a Critter Nation, there's no way she's pregnant, unless someone let her out, let her play with the boys and then put her back in the Critter Nation. If that didn't happen, then she can't be pregnant.

 

[pshuga03]

I agree with Jorats on this one. It's not physically possible for one of them to get preggo through the cage bars, ESPECIALLY if they are in a CN. They had to have been out and together at some point to mate.

 

[LA]

OK one thing I'm not clear on. Were the male and female put in the same cage together?

 

[cheyenneobvious]

as far as i know, no.
although it could be possible. :/

there is only one girl that i am suspecting that is preggo.

 

[jorats]

I wonder if perhaps your girl should see a vet. Abdominal tumours can seem like the rat is pregnant.