Yes, you read the title correctly. A rat I adopted at the age of exactly five weeks was pregnant.
Date of birth: November 11[SUP]th[/SUP], 2016
Date of adoption by me: December 16[SUP]th[/SUP], 2016 (exactly five weeks old)
Date she gave birth: January 2[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2017
Counting back, she must have been only four weeks and three days old when she became pregnant.
Some back story:
Her parents were rescue rats themselves. Her mother was already pregnant when taken in (by someone other than myself). The rat in question, Ollie, was kept with her brothers until five weeks of age, when I adopted her and her sister. About a week into having her, I noticed she was gaining weight at a far faster pace than her sister. What started as a ten gram difference between the two became a fifty gram difference very quickly (I weighed them every day).
My dad laughingly suggested maybe she was pregnant. It wasn’t possible, based on everything I’d read… so I pursued other options, such as megacolon. But nope, she was too healthy for that or anything else that would cause weight gain and bloating. So I prepared for babies.
She gave birth to nine healthy babies on January 2[SUP]nd[/SUP].
I am posting this to help anyone who thinks their young rat may be pregnant. When I searched “pregnant five week old rat” very little information came up. Mainly false alarms, people thinking their young rat was pregnant when it actually was something else. I only found two cases of rats suspected of being only five weeks old when they became pregnant, and those couldn’t provide the exact birthdate of the rat in question. I on the other hand have the date of birth of this rat, so we know exactly how old she was when she became pregnant.
Thankfully, so far, things are going well. No stillborns or serious birth injuries and she is feeding and caring for them just fine. I don’t know if I will keep this thread updated on them or not. I really just want this info to be out there.
Below is the weight in grams of Ollie and her sister from the day I got them to the day I am writing this. I did not weigh Ollie after she gave birth that day because I didn’t want to stress her.
Date / Sister’s weight / Ollie’s weight
I don’t want anyone worrying about the babies’ wellbeing. They are well cared for and have a permanent home with me. I likely will not attempt to rehome any of them, as I do have enough cage space for this many rats.
Date of birth: November 11[SUP]th[/SUP], 2016
Date of adoption by me: December 16[SUP]th[/SUP], 2016 (exactly five weeks old)
Date she gave birth: January 2[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2017
Counting back, she must have been only four weeks and three days old when she became pregnant.
Some back story:
Her parents were rescue rats themselves. Her mother was already pregnant when taken in (by someone other than myself). The rat in question, Ollie, was kept with her brothers until five weeks of age, when I adopted her and her sister. About a week into having her, I noticed she was gaining weight at a far faster pace than her sister. What started as a ten gram difference between the two became a fifty gram difference very quickly (I weighed them every day).
My dad laughingly suggested maybe she was pregnant. It wasn’t possible, based on everything I’d read… so I pursued other options, such as megacolon. But nope, she was too healthy for that or anything else that would cause weight gain and bloating. So I prepared for babies.
She gave birth to nine healthy babies on January 2[SUP]nd[/SUP].
I am posting this to help anyone who thinks their young rat may be pregnant. When I searched “pregnant five week old rat” very little information came up. Mainly false alarms, people thinking their young rat was pregnant when it actually was something else. I only found two cases of rats suspected of being only five weeks old when they became pregnant, and those couldn’t provide the exact birthdate of the rat in question. I on the other hand have the date of birth of this rat, so we know exactly how old she was when she became pregnant.
Thankfully, so far, things are going well. No stillborns or serious birth injuries and she is feeding and caring for them just fine. I don’t know if I will keep this thread updated on them or not. I really just want this info to be out there.
Below is the weight in grams of Ollie and her sister from the day I got them to the day I am writing this. I did not weigh Ollie after she gave birth that day because I didn’t want to stress her.
Date / Sister’s weight / Ollie’s weight
12/16/2016 | 129g | 138g |
12/17/2016 | 138g | 145g |
12/18/2016 | 141g | 143g |
12/19/2016 | 145g | 154g |
12/20/2016 | 147g | 164g |
12/21/2016 | 153g | 174g |
12/22/2016 | 158g | 182g |
12/23/2016 | 165g | 190g |
12/24/2016 | 170g | 198g |
12/25/2016 | 173g | 205g |
12/26/2016 | 173g | 212g |
12/27/2016 | 180g | 211g |
12/28/2016 | 185g | 222g |
12/29/2016 | 192g | 249g |
12/30/2016 | 197g | 267g |
12/31/2016 | 198g | 275g |
1/1/2017 | 206g | 292g |
1/2/2017 | 209g | gave birth |
1/3/2017 | 209g | 233g |
I don’t want anyone worrying about the babies’ wellbeing. They are well cared for and have a permanent home with me. I likely will not attempt to rehome any of them, as I do have enough cage space for this many rats.