New rat, possibly pregnant

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Greyday

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Since I skipped the introduction section let me say hi! I have 4 male rats, Iker, Ibra, Auron, and Bravo and four female rats, Rue, Rhey, Rayo, and Vesta. The boys I have had longer but I missed having the more active girls, so I picked up some girls. Rue and Rhey from a local pet store and Rayo and Vesta from Craigslist.

When I picked up Vesta and Rayo they were originally posted as three rats but one was already sold. The person I got them from said they were 4-5 months old. I am worried that Rayo is pregnant. When I picked them up I asked about the third rat, he said that someone had only wanted a male and not the female. Rayo looked fine when we picked her up but in the week that we have had her she has gotten very round. I asked the guy if there was any chance she was pregnant and he said no, but did say they were in the same cage together. I didn't know this as they came with a cage and he said the male had went with a cage also! Well here is her picture, does anyone who knows more about this think she might be pregnant. If so, what should I do.

Thanks in advance!

http://[URL=http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/Greyday87/media/Mobile%20Uploads/0425161826c_zpssmenwqun.jpg.html] [/URL]
 
There must be something wrong with photobucket - I'm seeing nothing but error message for all pictures on all threads??? So, can you feel any movement in her belly? Are her nipples obvious - hair sort of removed from around them? Do you have a scale, you need to start weighing her at the same time every day. When was the last time she might have been with the male?
 
I picked her up last week and the male was picked up earlier that day. Her nipples do seem large, it's hard to see in the picture. I don't think hair is removed from around them she is a very calm rat but she is very squirmy when I try to look. She's not a very big rat which is making her stomach look even bigger, she's smaller then vesta but her stomachs more round.
 
Yes, photobucket seems to be having some issues! I can't get my photos to work.

image.jpg
 
yes she looks like she is pregnant :(
You may want to start weighing her (digital scales are good) each day at the same time and recording her weight to see if there is a steady weight gain

what type of cage is she in?
- once she is close to giving birth, you will want the cage to have very small bar spacing, no levels and no hammocks

- she will need bedding that does not have threads
paper towel is good to give her for nesting material

- she will want to build nests and may want a nest box

There are many threads on here re pregnant rescued ratties and their babies

some links (when the forum changed ownership, the fonts in some threads became messed up :( )
http://ratguide.com/breeding/pregnancy/overt_gestational_changes.php
http://ratguide.com/breeding/pregnancy/determining_pregnancy.php
http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13691
 
Right now she is in a critter nation cage, thank you for the links. Any guess as to when she will have them or when she should be moved into her own cage?

And a question I am afraid to ask, what are the chances that Vesta is pregnant also?
 
Yikes is right 😳😐 ugh who keeps boys and girls together. They were so well cared for, healthy and sweet and he seemed knowledgable. He even made a homemade cage out of an old cabinet that was great but I didn't take because I had just ordered the critter nation cage.

Okay so worst case scenario they are both pregnant, do they need to be separated? Everything I have been reading says young first time moms don't always have a lot of babies, let's hope this is the case!

Vesta doesn't have the same belly but neither did Rayo last week so I guess we will have too see.

I went today and bought a clear tub and will make a top as that seemed to be a popular choice for pregnant moms and new babies.
 
Another question, the critters get out every day to spend a few hours with us (Yes boys and girls separate!). Should we leave Rayo and possibly Vesta alone until she/they give birth? They are really calm sweet rats they don't seem stressed by being handled but is that something we should just put off until after?
 
Part of litter size expectancy depends on how old they are and if they have had prior litters before, which is possible. I have/had a very young girl have 9 babies in her first litter and 10 in her back to back litter. Made me so sad as it was the same type of situation, male living with 2 females.

Any clue how old your girls are?

Weighing daily (at the same time each day) is best to determine where in the pregnancy a girl is and the health of the actual pregnancy. Stalls in weight gain are normal and even drops in weight for a day or so, but then the steady gain picks up. Most of their weight is gained in the last week.
 
http://[URL=http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/Greyday87/media/Mobile%20Uploads/0426161502_zpshif7qbaq.jpg.html] [/URL]http://[URL=http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/Greyday87/media/Mobile%20Uploads/0426161506-1_zps8dp8bgl9.jpg.html] [/URL]http://[URL=http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/Greyday87/media/Mobile%20Uploads/0426161503a_zpsgyuyawbk.jpg.html] [/URL]

This is Rayo earlier this afternoon. She seems fine, she pulled some paper towels into her hay tunnel but they all do that.

He said that her and Vesta were between 4-5 months old, I don't know if they are related but they are both dumbo and he got them at the same time. Vesta is much bigger then Rayo.

I just had her out for awhile, she was calm and sweet still so I will keep getting her out!
 
So can Rayo and Vesta stay together if both are pregnant? I tried to put Rayo in the tub so she would be on her own and comfortable but she just kept pacing and jumping to get to the top so I moved her back and kept an eye on her. Rue and vesta brought all the paper towels up and stuffed them in the hay tunnel but i don't see any signs of a nest other then that. Anyone have a guess as to when she should have her babies?
 
Do you have a digital scale? Weight gain is the key and after a few days of weighing every day at the same time and recording these weights will give us a better idea of when and also if your other girl is pregnant as well. Gestation is 21-23 days on average.

It's not advisable to keep them together but you also don't want to stress out the prospective mom at this point. Let's see if her behaviour changes closer to the birth.
 
I don't have one now, but I ordered one it should be here tomorrow.

I am thinking unless Vesta got pregnant later then Rayo then she might not be pregnant (fingers crossed) I put a tub with nesting material in the bottom of the cage, Vesta pulled them out and ignored the paper bedding. Rayo has just been doing her own thing though she did spend some time moving the rat blocks and yummy parts of the seed mix into the tub. They got an egg and broccoli omelet this morning that they seemed to enjoy.

image.jpg
 
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