Rats

[flaming_lizard]

I bought a female rat at a local pet store to mate with the male rat I had bought that didn't get eaten yet. I stuck them together and they sniffed each other and so on. The question is that the female I bought was housed with 5 males so I would assume that if rats go into heat every 5 days that she is already pregnant before I bought her. Any opinions? Guess I will find out soon enough.

[geckogirl171]

I don't raise rats or anything but I would guess you are right, you will find out soon enough. :shock: :) Most likely she is already pregnant.
Good luck with her!! :)

[LLAP101202]

umm yeah I dont raise rats but I do raise mice and you will very much be able to tell soon enough....mice get HUGE and FAST....I notice they are getting rounded and I watch for 2 days and BAM I take them out that night and they have babies within 2 days....I would research though rats might take a little longer...but if she starts looking like the SCHMOOO then she is pregers. lol Mice its cheaper to breed live but I think personally when I am ready to switch to rats I will start buying f/t. $1.50 frozen vs 6-10$ live?? oh yeah I will buy frozen.

[flaming_lizard]

Yea, live feeder rats are way expensive, and besides that I can not get baby or very small rats around here to start some of my other snakes on. The only part that sucks is if I need to kill them prior to feeding them to my snakes. I will have to go with using my paintball co2 tank and putting them to sleep. Well anyway I hope she is pregnant, and thanks all for the opinions.

[Taylormaid]

She probably is pregnant.
I have kept rats as pets and I now work at a place where I have to maintain several types of feeder rodents. Rats are very good mothers and sometimes, the males can be kept with a female and her babies.

[ta2dshtrbug]

flaming_lizard: If she was housed with that many males, the chances are very high that she is pregnant. Rats don't "show" like mice. A mouse will look like it swallowed a golf ball. Not so with rats. I usually take a piece of fruit and tease the females into standing on their hind legs. From this position it is much easier to tell if they are pregnant. They will look like they have a huge low-riding beer belly. Best of luck!

LLAP101202: I wish I lived wherever you live. Live adult rats go for about $2 here. I raise them myself, because I have over 40 snakes and can feed off all I can breed. Curiously, with them being so expensive there, why not raise your own and pay for the supplies by selling excess offspring? Just a thought....

dave

[flaming_lizard]

Looks like she has a beer belly, I just thought it was the budweiser :lol: Thanks for the info getting her to stand on her hind legs with fruit works very well.

[alexhue]

make sure that you remove the mother and babies into another enclosure as soon as you find the babies as male rats WILL EAT AND KILL offspring that is not of his line.

[ta2dshtrbug]

So did she turn out to be prego or not? Let us know.