[cupids_cuties]

alright...so my story starts with me adopting my rat pomplemousse (beige hooded). she is approx 4 months old now and i had previosly kept 1 rat at a time, but seeing as how used she was to being around people, dog and out of her cage i felt bad going back to classes because my scedual is way fuller now.

so, i got another rat, splash(black hooded). i checked her out qt the pet shop to make sure she was female.

i let them play together outside their cages everyday, and at night they each have a seperate cage bcuz splash is rather dominant whereas pomplemousse is really gentle.

so, on the 4 of feb, i was on the couch w/ a blanket and they were getting rather rowdy, so i lifted it up to seperate them and i am 99% sure i caught them in the act. i grabed splash and immediatly checked to make sure she was indead female...but to my suprise he is just starting to develop down there...

since that night, pomlemousse is acting different..she always wants to stay in her nest, comes out rarely, and when she is out, she hates being picked up (before she was practically like a rag doll) she seems skitterish too, and eventully if left to her own edvices she settles down in a hidding spot be it me or a pillow...i let them out together once(figuring whats done is done and she is no longer in heat, OF COURSE i watched them like a hawk!, and if splah would try to wrestle w/ her she would pin him immeadiatly! this is really weird behavior for her as she is usually so submissive

so...my questions are
do you think she could be pregnant(based on behavior)
and if so...is this normal behavior?sry bout the length

 

[twitch]

it sounds like she could be pregnant though i would have thought it hard to mistake a male baby for a girl baby by 4 weeks of age even 3. anyway ifsh is pregnant this is normal behaviour. i'll let a breeder tell you why their temperments change like that but i know that sometimes it does.

 

[cupids_cuties]

well it barely shows...he is really tiny tho...ive nevr seen such a small rat in my life. there were a few of them in the cage with bigger normal sized ones, and even though he was about the size of an adult mouse, he didnt look like a baby rat, "she" looked mature but just incredibly small, so maybe thats why i never noticed...

 

[cupids_cuties]

him being a male that is

 

[codcommando]

Hmm, im no rat expert but if he/she was indeed a male,wouldn't you be able to see his balls? Even when the rat is small,there testicles are very visible,if not then I would assume he is neutered or a female so you have nothing to worry about. But if he has his junkage then they propably have mated and you have a pregnant rat ~passes out cigars~ But im a pretty new owner so I dont know much,im just going on common sense. But heres a test I found "Sexing rats is fairly easy with a few guidelines. First, check the rat yourself—pet shop employees can make mistakes. By the time the baby rats are weaned (4 weeks of age) the males’ testicles will have dropped, but they aren’t always obvious because they can be voluntarily pulled inside the body. The most definite test is to press down gently on either side of what appears to be a penis—the urinary opening for a female looks a lot like a penis—in a male the red penis will pop out, but not in a female. The female also has a vaginal opening directly behind the urinary protuberance."

 

[cupids_cuties]

ive had a male rat before, and ive had a friend who also had a male rat and i must say that its pratcically impossible to mistake the two...but this one is tiny for his age(smaller than any male ive seen) and has just barely visible "junkage". which is probly why i never thought to check "him" continually to make sure he was indeed female, because unless your looking specifically they are completly unnoticable, so i never thought that splash being a male was even to be considered.
but its to late now...as long as pomplemousse stays healthy its ok. I an confidant that i can find homes for most if not all...and i will take care of any that are left behind.

 

[twitch]

perhaps you should take a few pictures for us to look at. we could certainly tell you for sure or not. there are types of rats that you can mistake but they aren't normally sold in pet stores and look quite a bit different then a normal pet rat. but they can be mistaken for a baby rat or even a mouse. give us a few pictures and we can tell you for sure. i'd like to find out one way or the other cause a temperment change like the one pomplemousse is going through can also be a fairly serious sign of illness if she isn't pregnant.

 

[lilspaz68]

Are you sure your girl wasn't just in heat? Take a good look at your "male" because by 3 1/2 weeks there are definite balls.

My young girls change behaviour during adolescence. Some of them got silly and skittish and even a bit nippy, but they are working it out or have already grown out of it