[Alyssa_Rat]

Oh.. well i might be getting a little over myself but I have a hunch/suspect that maybe Alyssas Prego... I mean like when I got her 13 days ago she was skinny and i even thought of maybe feeding her alot of goodies to help her gain some waight, but now shes like noticably fat ((that was mean, oops)). When i got her she was one of the female out of like 4 females and 8 males.. they were mixed together 8O . now, Alyssas my first female I bought from a pet store so idk if she could be prego.. could it be possible.
Heres a couple pics of her stomace if it helps...
Heres her before, a week ago:

Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18

Show Content

And heres her today:

(((((Wow i noticed Alyssa brings more drama to my life than my own family does... but i still love her!!)))))
**I know this was under someone elses post first**

 

[DonnaK]

Re: i had an amazing yet maybe useless though.....

It is possible, but not necessarily probable. If you've been spoiling her a bit, she could quite easily get a bit of a porky belly.

If she was pregnant when you got her, and you've had her 13 days, she will only have about a week left until she gives birth. I would guess, though I don't know, that if that were the case you should be able to see a bit of movement in her belly? I would read up on how to spot the signs that a rat is pregnant and monitor her for any other changes.

 

[JennieLove]

Re: i had an amazing yet maybe useless though.....

LMAO...you should see my boys bellies! Hehe, they look prego!

 

[Rodere]

Re: i had an amazing yet maybe useless though.....

If she's pregnant, then her nipples will start becoming more pronounced. She might even start loosing a little hair on her belly around them. Is there any way you can weigh her (using grams or ounces, not lbs) and see if she is gaining weight gradually? That would be your best bet to see if she's pregnant.

You might want to start giving her extra protein in case. Scrambled eggs, that sort of thing. She'll love it.

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

Re: i had an amazing yet maybe useless though.....

Umm well she wont sit still so its hard for me to look at her stomace... in order for me to take those few good photos i had to give her a cheerio. Shes actually not that spoiled food wise.. like i give her her normal diet then a couple cheerios on the side... but i am ganna watch her more closely now. I cant really weigh her.. i dont have anything to weigh her with. thanks for the help though!!
(( now i dont wanna keep my hopes up to high cause everytime i do something goes wrong, about anything. so im just ganna wing it through the next week or 2 to se what happens, but ill let you guys know when i know))

 

[twitch]

where she's a hairless variety you may want to look into a surrogate mom just incase. i know true hairless mothers typically are very poor mothers, some CAN'T lactate and others will kill the babies. there are the odd good ones but they're more uncommon. but where alyssa is a double rex i'm not sure if her mothering skills will be more like that of the average rat or that of a hairless rat.

also if you think she may be pregnant try to find a place for a nursery now. sometimes it can take a while to build/find an approiate place and it doesn't take long for babies to grow to where they're crawling around and trough bars.

and certainly do your research now, even if it turns out that she may not be pregnant. you'll want all your bases covered for omplications long beforehand and hopefully you won't need them. but research how to raise orphaned babies, as well as how to handle new babies, sexing them, deit for prego rats and nursing moms, socailizing for babies, how to handle protective mothers, what signs to look for with a mother in distress or babies in distress. and find yourself a good vet just in case there are complications during birth or afterwards. its a lot of work but if it turns out you need some of this information at least you'll hav eit and not have to waste time looking it up or not notcing the first signs of problems and losing someone. i don't mean to scare you, most pregnanices and deliveries will go off without a hitch but always better to be safe then sorry.

keep us updated

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

Thanx for giving me that info, um yes i will keep you updated. i think shes more double rex cause she has little bits of hairless spots, but you could be right about the hairless rats not being good moms. I know the farm i vulinteered at was trying so hard to breed hairless rats and either they wouldnt breed or the one time they did breed the momma rat got loose the night she had them and by the time they found her the babies had passed away. so im just a lil worried.
I dont have any tissue boxes so whats a few things that make good nesting places??

 

[radical]

it's really hard to tell.. i'd just keep an eye on her and if she gains any more tummy then maybe get a bit more worried hehe. my friend's rat tilly had babies, and we wouldn't tell she was pregnant until BAM! twelve rat babies.

 

[lilspaz68]

I would say if your girl was living with boys for more than 5 days its more than likely she is pregnant since they go into heat every 4 days.

Start feeding her a higher protein diet, extra nutritional stuff, since it won't hurt her and could help her a lot. IF she is pregnant she will eat a lot, and will need the extra nutrition for herself and her growing young'uns. After the birth they often lose weight and condition since its very stressful on their body to feed all those babies.

if you can get your hands on a food scale or a digital postal scale you could weigh her.

Here is my thread on another forum when I was trying to figure out if my girl last year was pregnant. Lots of pics to compare to and lots of great advice. I use that thread as a teaching tool. You don't have to join to read it.

http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat/topic,4009992.0

 

[Starghoti]

What I did for Kitty was find a small 6-8" square cardboard box, and cut the 'bottom' out of it, and cut a rat sized door in one side and on top (they often like two doors) Don't be surprised if she blocks off the side door and uses the top one. They know how to keep the babies from falling out of the nest. and give her a pile of little shreds of paper towel and other soft cushy paper stuff (just be cautious of brown paper bag stuff. Lost a baby to that from it sticking to it while still wet. Kinda glued itself to the paper.. )
If she suddenly starts shoving EVERYTHING she can get ahold of into the nesting box, be ready for birth in a day or so.
Also be a little careful with handling around that time. Some mommas become defensive-nippy when birth is imminent, and for a while after.

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

um ok lilspaz.. the second set of pics of your ratty in that link is what Alyssa sorta looks like, probaly not that big but yea shes showing a little bigness but the nipples havnt started showing. im ganna make her a nest today i guess and how will i know if shes nesting for a litter or just making a bed for herself??
and i heard that after a couple days of the babies being born you can start holding them.. is that true??

(((cause i know with hamster if you so much as look at the babies the mama will eat them, eew it so gross, iv had it happen twice)))

 

[lilspaz68]

um ok lilspaz.. the second set of pics of your ratty in that link is what Alyssa sorta looks like, probaly not that big but yea shes showing a little bigness but the nipples havnt started showing. im ganna make her a nest today i guess and how will i know if shes nesting for a litter or just making a bed for herself??
and i heard that after a couple days of the babies being born you can start holding them.. is that true??

(((cause i know with hamster if you so much as look at the babies the mama will eat them, eew it so gross, iv had it happen twice)))

I handled mine from birth, but it can also depend on the mother. Is she becoming nippy and anxious? Some get very hormonally protective and will bite. My Bronny got sweeter and sweeter, and even when I handled the babies in the cage she would rush my hand and then stop, and say "mmm..ok its you, but be careful I'm nervous". After a week or so, she relaxed and let me take them from her...LOL

If this helps its the continuing saga after the babies were born. I did a daily pictoral of their life. I unfortunately changed the name of my photobucket folder and have only replaced pics up to 19 days old. There are sexing pics and lots of things asked and answered. And some darn cute Bronling pics if I say so myself. I still have mom Bronwen and 4 of her kids. *heart*

http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat/topic,4010369.0

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

Aww there so cute!!!! I want one... umm well i put that box in her cage, in the spot were she'll pull the cloth in her cage and curl up. and i gave her some shredded paper towel ((for now)) and at first she started bringing the shredded paper ((that was spread through the cage)) into the box then she like stopped and went to sleep in her hammock.. its weird cause she never sleeps in her hammock cause its at the top of her cage.

Idk if youv seen my post about her flipping out whenever i feed her..?
well she does that.. when she knows its feeding time shes get really excited and when i give a peice of food to her while i feed her bowl she take it and flip out running oround her cage and at one point she tried to take my finger, like i know she confused it for food but she like wouldnt let go. she didnt break the skin and it didnt hurt its just she like sat there pulling at my finger... it was weird.

could any of this have to do with being prego??

 

[KayRatz]

Well my rat tries nibbling my finger on occasion, especially Zinc, rat of many strange habits. They're just testing to see if you're edible :]

 

[fallinstar]

any updates?

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

actually shes ignoring the nesting box i gave her and shes umm what im ganna call "nesting" in her hammock. like all of a sudden out of no were she just started dragging the shredded paper towels up to her hammock... have you ever heard/had a rat have babies in the hammock?? im afraid IF she does have babies that they might fall out of the hammock ((3 storys)) and like die or get badly injured... what do i do if she does have babies there?? and i would like to say she gained some wait but idk if thats just me thinking that... although my mom says she does look a little bigger, so im still waiting to se what happens.

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

ok... i jinxed myself ((i think)) now she like made a "nest" at the bottom of her cage.... out of the paper towel strips. It like connects with the box that she now made into what i call the "food-hall" also known as the place were she hides her food. its sorta funny looking.

And she doesnt wanna come out of her cage!!! since when?? im shocked cause usually when i open her cage door she right there ready to come out and play, now she just peeks her head out of her nest and wants me to pet her... weird. have any ideas on why shes acting this way?? i wanna say she is prego... but i dont wanna get my hopes up.

 

[Stephanie]

*crosses fingers* maybe soon she will have babies

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

i hope so *crossing fingers also*, that would be nice!!

 

[Night]

You're hoping for babies? Why? A litter is extremely time-consuming, expensive, and not for the novice rat owner at all.