Help sexing rat

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Tramca

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I recently brought home a pair of 18 week old (approx) boys. Sold as a pair from same litter.
How old are boys when you can clearly see their scrotum?
Mine don't have obvious bulges there, and I managed to snap a pic of Flash on the bars. I did notice that Michael's genitals were not at all visible through his fur, but he was too fast for me to take a pic.
So heres Flash. Am I seeing nipples? I'm worried I've been sold two females, or more worryingly, one of each.
 

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Hiya, a rat's testicles should be fairly pronounced at 18 weeks. The rat in the picture looks like a female. One easy way to check is to look for nipples. Male rats don't have them. Could you upload a similar picture of your other rat? If one is male and one is female you'd obviously want to separate them immediately.
 
I don't have a pic of my other rats underside yet, but will try to take one when I get home tomorrow.

I've spent a whole week bonding with these guys, and will not want to return either of them, so I'd probably have to go down the route of having one neutered or spayed if they were male and female.
 
I don't have a pic of my other rats underside yet, but will try to take one when I get home tomorrow.

I've spent a whole week bonding with these guys, and will not want to return either of them, so I'd probably have to go down the route of having one neutered or spayed if they were male and female.

If it is the case, then neutering the male is a less intrusive operation than spaying the female. I've had two males neutered in the past and they healed up really well. Have you checked for nipples? It could be the case that both were sold to you as males but are actually females.
 
I'm thinking those are nipples there on Flash, and there are no testicles.
Michael doesn't appear to have what look like nipples, nor testicles. But I'll get a proper look tomorrow. I'd rather them both be female than one of each.

I will definitely be letting the store know they got it wrong, if thats the case.
 
The rat is the picture is a girl. Please separate her from the boy immediately!

If you have access to a good vet with the knowledge and experience to spay and neuter rats, it is important to spay girls for health reasons

Please see the information and pictures re telling the sex of rats, and the information on spaying and neutering rats in the Reference Section https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

Were Michael and Flash in with other males?
 
That baby is MOST DEFINITELY a female. At that age, you would almost certainly see balls if they were boys. They are fairly hard to miss! :p

If she was or is in with another male, I'd be preparing for a litter in the next couple of weeks. If she starts looking pudgy, and gets pear shaped (hard to miss as well) you need to give her nesting materials, and put her in a cage with small bar spacing.

I'll try to find a pic of one of my boys when they were around that age or younger for comparison.
 
It may be kinda hard to see in these pics, but if you zoom in, you can see their boy parts.
 

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Michael is most definately female also!
I'm just happy they're both girls.
Flash will keep her name, Micharl is now Mika.
There both doing really well, and were waiting for me at the door when I got up at 7 this morning. They enjoyed an hour with me on the sofa. Thanks for all your help everyone. Much appreciated.

Here are some pics of the girls.

I've added hammocks and ropes etc to the cage and plan on adding more climbing stuff for them.
 

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