Earliest sign of pregnancy...sniff.

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Rodentist

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
228
Location
Buffalo, NY
So, last night my petite little Mama Doodles escaped from the Ferret Nation in my bedroom, motored down the hallway, found the living room.....where the 5 Liverpool boys are, squeezed in....and...

I was sitting on the couch when I saw this flash of Cinnamon Pearl in the boys cage (who are all black and white) and the boys started going NUTS, and I raced over and tried to get her but they were all racing around and she kept squirting out of my fingers, and the boys were EVERYWHERE at once and I am going "Noooooooooo! Nooooooooooo! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" I only saw excited sniffings and chasings...but I fear the worst! I finally herded her into a kleenex box and got her back into her regular house where the residents were really roughly sniffing her, chasing her and pushing her around. I figured that even if they didn't knock her up, they certainly pee'd all over her. She probably wasn't in there more than a minute, but I am sure that is all it takes.

I gave her a bath with baby shampoo, and put her back and they were a little better.

I am going to start giving her daily weighings...are there any other EARLY signs?

Talk about determination! *sob*
 
Don't just weigh her call your vet and get her spayed ASAP!!!!!

Your petite female should not have been in a Ferret Nation unless it was covered in mesh with intact males in the house...IF people have females in the same house they should be in secure cages, in different rooms with DOORS.....There have been so many post of these "accidents" happen you would think people could learn from them..This is very upsetting especially since you were entrusted with rescue rats.......they are not meant to be used to make more rats. I am sorry if people think this post is harsh but I am severely pissed.....
We are working our guts out doing rescue so stupid mistakes can happen and people can "accidently" let their rats get pregnant....... :gaah:
 
I would suggest a spay as well. You could check for a semen plug but it really does sound like she was in heat and had 5 eager males willing to help her out with her problem. You should count on her as definitely pregnant.

Weighing is only really good in the last week and a bit, before that there's little that shows you pregnancy. Eating more, possibly nippy, maybe nesting although thats more in the later phases.
 
Yeah...I only knew my housemate's rat was pregnant in her last week. :( A spay would be really good to consider.
 
I have to agree with everyone else.

All things aside. You mentioned Mama was petite, so a full term pregnancy may not be the safest, healthiest thing for her.
 
Don't you even think about grouping Catherine in with those constantly irresponsible rat owners who are always having these 'accidental' pregnancies.
The boys in her home get neutered, at great expense, in order for an accident like this to be avoided. I would like to see a show of hands of every single rat owner on this forum, who keeps more than one sex in the house, that has all of one sex of their rats altered.
This was just bad timing because the age of the new boys, who were waiting to be neutered if you care to read her other posts.
The last thing that a rescuer wants, and Catherine is at the top of that list, is an accidental pregnancy to occur. If everyone's advice is to do an emergency spay, then I am sure that is what will happen.
 
Then she should have written that Vanessa............she could have said that she has all her males neutered and just didn't have these done yet....she also should have had a secure cage. If her female can get out of one cage....and into another her cage is not secure.....
The very first thing she should have been to thinking of is getting this female spayed not saying she had begun to weigh her and ask for signs of possible pregnancy........
She should have asked that in her post...."what should I do" or "I am getting her spayed right away"...not "what signs of pregnancy do I look for"...By the times signs of pregnancy show up it is to late!!!
Everyone who has "accidental" pregnancies has excuses....How many time of this forum have we read...."my female got out and got in with the males".....weather or not this person has all her other rats neutered the bottom line is that more baby rats are being born unless she has a spay done.

So I am very glad to hear she will do that....no need to talk about it further.

Oh and if you want to see a show of hands I can raise mine.......My males and females are all done except one old male.......
 
thats why i no longer want unneutered boys in my house, my girls even went to lengths of chewing out bottoms of cages and chewing bottoms of doors to get knocked up. the boys could be almost as devious its laws of nature to figure out how to procreate.
 
Oh Rodentist... that must have been a gut wrenching find. :cry4:
I too recommend an immediate emergency spay if you can.

But... I can sure understand how some did get very upset at such a prospect. I'm glad Vanessa elaborated, this helps us know that you aren't one of those. :wink2:
With this huge rescue barely done, it's a huge heart ache to read that there are yet more babies about, either accidentally or intentionally bred.

Good luck!!!
 
Yes it is hard not to get upset...babies are so cute, we all love them, we can all agree on that.....but the last thing we need is more babies being born....
 
Oddly enough, I suspect that she isn't pregnant, since she was in there under a minute and the boys seemed more excited that another rat was in there and curious than horny. Regardless, an appointment is being made on Monday.

My vet also doesn't recommend spaying, he says it is too risky a surgery and prefers I neuter my boys. He told me a rat spay would be about $600, which I figure was a price set to discourage me. He also doesn't like doing neuters until 5 months, which I think is a little late. So I fudge the ages of them a tad. The Liverpool boys still look too much like little kids for me to do that, yet, though.

If you are thinking, "someone needs a new vet". This guy is great with rats....he has had pet rats, and takes great care of them. I can't even see someone else in practice. When I first called around looking for a vet....no place would even see them. I got one horrified, "RATS?! We don't see RATS!!" from a place that advertised as specializing in the care of "small animals." This was about three years ago, perhaps attitudes have changed, but I bet they haven't.

Sorry I wasn't wordier.
 
600!!!!!! Wow...that is pricey....Hopefully if she was only in with them for a minute she is not pregnant. I will be the first to say if that is what it would cost me I would have to play the wait and see game and then be prepared to keep the babies... I could not afford that.
Good luck and I hope this all works out great for you.......

Sorry I was so quick to judge...I apologize for that.....It just gets so discouraging working in rescue......sometimes I forget to stop and hear all the facts.....
 
I'm going to hope she isn't pregnant too, with all the fuss, perhaps even boys would be more curious than being...boys. ;)

That's quite the hefty price! Good luck, you'll know soon enough!
 
Erm...I thought it seemed pretty high...but how much are you guys paying? You guys seem so surprised. Now that the American dollar and Canadian dollar are equal, I don't even have to calculate an exchange anymore. In case you were wondering, they charge around $200 for a neuter, sometimes more, rarely less, as they charge by the minute for the sevoflurane sedation. I'd have to pull a bill, but I think the neutering itself is only $54, then everything extra is tacked on.
 
Neuters are about $180, spays (the last one I was quoted about a year ago) are about $320. That is in Toronto, I know that vets outside the city are sometimes less.
 
Dahlas said:
My neuters are $46, spays are $86.25.....including the tax.....very cheap. I had 8 females and 3 males done.....$828.00....
Click to expand...

Yeesh. My 'visit fee' is the same as your neuter cost. You're very lucky.
 

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