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virgo2882

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
54
Location
Illinois
So I finally got my 2 bottom levels of the FN cage wired with mesh so the new girlys could not escape.
I finally redid their entire cage, and put them in their new homes for the first time. I have rue who is a male on top by himself, I adopted him from petco cause he was abandoned.
Anyhow, I wake up and all 4 girls are missing! = /
Luckily I found 3 girls hiding very well in a corner..... so that was good news however, SNOOPY (who did not get her name after a character, but by her actions) is found just hanging out upstairs with rue!!!!
I dont think my eyes could have bulged out my head any more. One thing came out of it, I realized rue did not bite her head off, and probably is nice enough to have a friend with him, because he is a bit aggressive. However we all know what happened and who knows how many times!
I checked her female parts and it looked like it was a bit swollen, so I guess rue got lucky, and I am a grandma.
I can NOT believe she snuck through the top bars, and the WORST thing of this all is that me and my boyfriend were going to chicken wire underneath Rues cage so this would not happen,but I said we can do it tomorrow, I doubt they can sneak through, and they will be so excited to explore there new cage they wont even look up there..... so not only was I dead wrong but the boyfriend gets to say I TOLD YOU SO.....
This is sooo unexpected, I just adopted these 4 girls to give them a new home, and it looks like I am a new mommy again.....
ANy tips, is it at all possible she can not be pregnant lol =) wishful thinking
Or I am hoping because he is older, maybe it will be a small litter, because I plan to keep them all....
I just HOPE that the other 3 girls stayed in their cage......
ahhhhhhhhh
Looks like another FN cage will be bought so this can not happen again!
:?
 
That is why I only have girls....where there is a will there is a way......IF I ever got a male he would have to be neutered....I have read to many stories like this one...Good luck I hope it all works out for you. Maybe she won't be pregnant or else will have a very small litter.....
 
I originally only had females, and I adopted rue because STUPID petco assured me it was a female, and he was soo scared when I got him I did not want to pick him up and check, so i took their word.
Well as we all know when i got home and took him out, i noticed those testes, and he was soo scared I just could not return him so I kept in on the top cage, and had 2 females on the bottom , and never once had a problem but these females were adults, not youngins like the ones i got now.
Sooo yeah,
Now he is daddy..... maybe he can hang out with his sons now..... :roll:
 
Oh that sucks. You need to put hardware mesh around the entire cage even underneath the pans to prevent escapees. I hope she only has a small litter. That is why I too only have girls, no opps litters for me. The one boy I did have he was neutered so no problems there. I would also put it around where Rue lives to just to prevent the girls getting in there just in case they do get out.
 
You should really look into having Rue, and any males your girl may have, neutered, unless you're going to have all of your females spayed. While spaying is infinitely more beneficial health wise for females, if Rue is aggressive he may not accept the males into his cage. Since Rue is aggressive, it's very possible that it's genetic and his offspring will carry that trait as well. Neuters also are generally cheaper than spays. I suppose it depends on how many you have of each sex.

You can start weighing the female every day, keeping track of her weight and behaviors. It would be best just to assume she is pregnant and prepare for that. The average gestation is 21-23 days, I believe. If you do a search here on the forum, you can find all sorts of info on keeping mom healthy and ensuring the babies do okay. If she's about the same size/age as her cagemates, you can weigh them as well to keep a baseline of what would be a normal weight for her.
 
WEll I planned on having Rue neutered so he could be put in with the girls but me and the vet decided that it would not be best at this point, since he is reaching the end of his life and we were not sure how is body would take it, and it would cost me $190.00 when I do not have that type of money at this point right now. If it was for an emergency situation or surgery I would be able to come up with the money is his life was endangered....
I would love to get the boys neutered, but that is looking like a $300-800 deal depending on if she has 2 or more
I guess I can learn from this mistake.
Rue is a sweet heart, but he was mishandled when he was given up for adoption, so we think that is why he bites, he does not bite as hard as he can, he usually always thinks my hands are food, but still a couple of those bites really start to hurt.
He loves to play and comes when he is called, and loves attention, but not with hands, he is very scared.
I believe if she is pregnant and there is indeed boys I will buy a complete seperate cage for the boys....
oh boy I did not see this coming
Its either spend about $160 on a FN or spend another $500+ on neutering, and i truly just can not afford that at this point...
:cry:
Thanks for the suggestions, whish I would of knew some of this info before :)
 
You could have the girl e-spayed, which generally costs quite a bit more than a regular spay. It would, however, mean you would be less the expenses of a new cage, any problems arising from the pregnancy or birth, the babies health problems, etc... You can ask your vet if they'll work out a payment plan for you, or something along those lines.

The babies aren't going to be cheap. Neither is mom while pregnant. She needs lots of extra protein rich foods like eggs and chicken. There is a chance that your girl will have complications during birth, or problems afterwards. In very young or very old rats, the risks are magnified because their bodies just aren't as well equipped to handle it all. Depending on their genetics, the babies could be seriously ill from the word go. Cages, vets visits, abs, etc.. It all adds up very quickly.

Not to mention, with unaltered sexes living within the same house, there is every possibility that this will happen again. No matter how diligent we are, accidents do happen. Next time, you may not be so lucky as to have only had one female get in with a male.
 
what is e-spayed?
There is a lot for me to think about, I suppose I have some time before I need know exactly what I should do...
Im kind of scared now tho that you mentioned complications...
What type of complications and how common are they?
I have never have had rat babies before so this is a first... I need to know anything and everything I can
What I should feed her? What about her 3 sisters? Where should I keep her?
Thanks for the info and help
I need all the help I can get to make this go as smoothly as possible for the rats, and myself for that matter...
 
E-spay is an Emergency Spay. It's really only an option within a certain time period, I believe in the first week or so. The vet spays the female, with the knowledge that she is pregnant. It's defined as an 'emergency' because she is pregnant.

The pregnancy itself can go badly. A pup could get stuck in the birth canal, at which point she would need to see a vet immediately. Infection after something like that is almost guaranteed, and she'll need a spay anyhow. The pups could all be still born. They could have serious health problems, depending on the mom and dad's backgrounds. If either are High White, Megacolon is possible. You can see info on that here : http://jorats.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=175 . Heart defects, organ defects. The list is pretty long. Depending, the pups may just fail to thrive, which is something that can occur with any rat, no matter how well bred or healthy.

If the pregnancy goes well, she could abandon the pups, at which point you would need to hand feed them several times a day, stimulate them to use the bathroom, and keep them warm. Most pups abandoned early on don't make it, and fail to thrive within the first week. If she abandons them after the first few days, you have more of a chance of atleast a couple of them making it.

If everything goes well, and they've made it to 4 weeks with no health problems, they may live a perfectly healthy life. They could also have chronic URI's, organ problems - especially the heart, prone to all sorts of conditions. Pet store rats are a genetic melting pot, and you never know what you're gonna get. While some of the conditions I mentioned are somewhat rare, it really depends on your area and the types of rats that have been bred.

You can feed her eggs, bits of chicken, baby food, baby cereal on top of her normal diet. The idea is to really supplement what she's already getting. Pregnancy takes alot out of them, and up until the babies are weaned she'll need all of the extra food she can get. You'll need to separate her from her cagemates into a cage that either has a very deep plastic pan and no levels, an aquarium, or a tote cage [see how to make one here : http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm#cage ]. You'll want to move her into that cage atleast a week prior to her being due, so that she has time to get used to the cage and make herself at home. You'll need to use paper towels or bits of fleece for bedding. Carefresh tends to stick very badly to the pups, fabrics other than fleece will fray and could potentially strangle the pups, newspapers are very messy and ink will get on the pups. Her cagemates can seriously injure the babies, whether they mean to or not. Some females will steal the babies from the nest, and without warmth and food they will die. The mother and cagemate can even get into a tug of war over the baby, if the cagemate is determined enough.

You'll need to sex the babies [Lilspaz has a couple of great photos on telling them apart] and separate the boys from the girls by 4-4.5 weeks to prevent pregnancy. Your girl can get pregnant again within hours of giving birth, so you'll need to make sure she can't get to Rue and he can't get to her. The girls can obviously stay with mom. You'll probably need to do a full intro back into the FN with the cagemates, though.

While everything may go perfectly fine, without any incident, there's always a chance. Even good breeders who know exactly what they're doing can run into some of these problems.
 
Since you can not have Rue neutered, I hope that you will get your girls spayed. If you spay your girls it will prevent accidental pregnancies and give Rue some friends. Plus there are the possible health benefits of spaying girls.
 
So you guys have your rats neutered or spayed??
Do you have any problems with the vet or the surgery after it is done?
I only have one exotic vet close to me, and she made it seem like a huge deal to get Rue neutured, as if you are not really supposed to do this to rats since they have such a short period of life..... and she kept asking me if i am doing it for the RIGHT reasons.... and I was not sure where she was getting at with those questions..
I felt as if i was doing something bad for him by asking him to get neutered...
which i know alot of people do get their rats neutered and spayed so i was somewhat taken back when she said that
How much do your neuters and spays cost you?
I really will have to start saving up if this is one of my options
Thanks again guys
I hope she was not in heat, but if she was I think i will be okay with your guys help and information......
:: Fingers Crosses ::
 
I am somewhat confused about the e-spay.... does this stop the babies from coming or hurt them? Or does this just get the momma fixed up?
 
Does this put the mom at any more harm to do this? It is an option, and somewhat good to know it is there, but I do not think i will be doing this.... as the babies will have a home to go to and treated with love...
Have you ever had an e-spay done before? They seem like they would be quite expensive
 
As long as all of the babies have a home then I would just let her have them, but be prepared their litters can be large from what I have seen just here on the forum.

I have had an e-spay done on two of my pits (dogs). Some little dog got a hold of my bf's god right after she had weaned her pups so she had an immediate e-spay. The BF realized it was hard enough to find good homes for pit puppies let alone mutt puppies. And then the puppy we kept from her litter went into heat early at 6 months or age, I have never had one go in heat before 8 months and I had an appointment to get her spayed at 7 months (this was before vets would do it at an early age) and she some how got out of the yard and started to get bigger and bigger so I knew she was prego and I did not want to contribute to the pet over population so she was spayed ASAP. It does cost more because the uterus is enlarged.

My dog Dazie when she was spayed had pyometra really, really bad and I got her spayed just in time. She did not have an e-spay I am more responsible then my bf. It cost me the same as the e-spay for his two.

In a rat I have no idea and surgery is always a concern in all animals.
 

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