Possible pregnant rat

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Is she pregnant?

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 100.0%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    2

RatDad2017

New Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2019
Messages
1
Location
Ohio
Hey everyone! I’m new here, but I’ve had rats for a large portion of my life. Currently, I recently added a 5th female to my rat pack. I’ll admit, I didn’t adopt this time- I went to petland and saw a female through a cage and she looked so sad and I couldn’t help it. I currently have her in her own space to quarantine her, and I’m glad that she is someone safe, because I believe she is pregnant! When I got her, she was with one other female, but I do not know if she previously was with other males. She is an adult, and I attached a picture. I have a nest set up for her and have been giving her extra protein with her meals and making sure that she has plenty of nesting material.

My question is, when I got her, she was already big, but she has grown, and I keep thinking to myself “it will be tonight, there’s no way she can get any bigger”, but she keeps getting bigger- and I just want to make sure she is actually pregnant and it isn’t a tumor or something like that. She is super sweet, but when I open the cage and peek in her nest, she instantly starts shuffling everything around like she is nervous. When she is out of her nest, she doesn’t seem nervous. Also, I would never remove her from her nest, I only check once a day to see if I have any pinkies. Please take a look at the picture of the first night I got her (on the left) and then a picture I took a day ago (on the right). Also, she is eating and drinking normally.

Thank you so much!!
 

Attachments

  • A792A069-E41B-4807-9268-6E224DDAE37E.jpeg
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Looks pregnant to me. How many days since you got her?
The best way to determine pregnancy is weighing daily at the same time each day with a small digital scale. Pregnancy weight will be obvious even if there are stalls in weight gain or a small drop or 2. It can often tell you the health of the pregnancy as well. I would use this time to bond with her before the birth. She needs her Out time as well for exercise and mental stimulation.
 
Looks pregnant to me. How many days since you got her?
The best way to determine pregnancy is weighing daily at the same time each day with a small digital scale. Pregnancy weight will be obvious even if there are stalls in weight gain or a small drop or 2. It can often tell you the health of the pregnancy as well. I would use this time to bond with her before the birth. She needs her Out time as well for exercise and mental stimulation.

It will be two weeks since I got her this Saturday. She is very sweet when I get her out. She loves sitting up on my shoulder. I feel like she is pregnant too, but each day that passes I get worried it’s something else that could be wrong with her.
 
The weight gain will help with helping you figure out if its pregnancy. Some girls will groom off the hair around their nipples, start nesting in the last week or days. I use paper towel for my nests, remove houses, hammocks, shelves etc. Make sure the maternity cage has small bar spacing, and only water bottles, not bowls a pinkie could get into and drown in.

If she will let you, put her on your lap and gently lay the flat of your fingers under her belly. If the belly feels nice and even across, rather than one big lump on one side, she's probably pregnant.
Most girls give birth on Day 22 even though average gestation is 21-23 days, so you have up to 9 days to go. Babies often start to visibly move 24-48 hours prior to birth, which is another sign of imminent birth.

Any clue how old she is?

Arabelle (aka Arabelly the Angry Rat) was a bigger girl and I took her in on Mar 21 (pictured here), she gave birth on Mar 27.

Mar2514Arabelly.jpg~original
 
Baby Lilith was thought to be a boy, and was put in with an adult male who impregnated her right at 6 weeks is my guess.
She went from this August 9th
Lilithbelly3aug9.jpg~original


To this on August 13th

Lilith2aug13.jpg~original


and August 14th (babies were born that night)

Lilith3aug14.jpg~original
 
The weight gain will help with helping you figure out if its pregnancy. Some girls will groom off the hair around their nipples, start nesting in the last week or days. I use paper towel for my nests, remove houses, hammocks, shelves etc. Make sure the maternity cage has small bar spacing, and only water bottles, not bowls a pinkie could get into and drown in.

If she will let you, put her on your lap and gently lay the flat of your fingers under her belly. If the belly feels nice and even across, rather than one big lump on one side, she's probably pregnant.
Most girls give birth on Day 22 even though average gestation is 21-23 days, so you have up to 9 days to go. Babies often start to visibly move 24-48 hours prior to birth, which is another sign of imminent birth.

Any clue how old she is?

Arabelle (aka Arabelly the Angry Rat) was a bigger girl and I took her in on Mar 21 (pictured here), she gave birth on Mar 27.

Mar2514Arabelly.jpg~original


I would say she is about a year old. She’s the approximately the size of my other girls and they’re around a year old (a little older).

I’ve felt her belly before (not poking at it, just placed my fingers around it just like you said) and it felt pretty well rounded and not just on the side(s). So, I figured if she goes past the normal gestation period, I will take her to the vet (or if she stops eating, drinking, or using the restroom).
 
I would say she is about a year old. She’s the approximately the size of my other girls and they’re around a year old (a little older).

I’ve felt her belly before (not poking at it, just placed my fingers around it just like you said) and it felt pretty well rounded and not just on the side(s). So, I figured if she goes past the normal gestation period, I will take her to the vet (or if she stops eating, drinking, or using the restroom).

So as an update, my rat hasn’t given birth yet, and I may really starting to believe that she isn’t pregnant. When I go to pick her up, her belly feels pretty hard (not that I’m poking, I can just feel it as i pick her up).
 
Normal gestation is 21.5 to 22 days ……. but gestation for back-to-back litters is 28+ days as implantation is delayed so the first litter is old enough to survive …… if she does not give birth soon, a vet visit as you suggested, would be very important.
 
Is she continuing to gain weight? Did you get a scale?

She does seem to be gaining more wait. I have not purchased a scale for her. Giving that I got her on the 30th of March and she hasn’t given birth yet, I’m just going to make an educated guess that she isn’t pregnant (which I’m sad about, but also relieved because that means she can go in the “big girl” cage sooner than planned). I’m going to be scheduling her a vet appointment this week. I found a vet near me that treats exotics and has great ratings. I do not want to put her into the rat cage with my other girls until she gets a star of approval by the vet. I’ll update her diagnosis, if any, on here within the next week!
 
Is she continuing to gain weight? Did you get a scale?

I have a sad update.

She had to be euthanized. After completing an X-ray, it was determined that she had a tumor. I went to a different vet that actually specialized in rats and they believed it was cancerous. They said her organs were being squished, and that she was probably suffering, so, we put her down.
 
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