Long story short, our 4h club is doing barn hunt this year and I volunteered to be the rat person.
So last week I picked up a mom rat and her 4- 5 week old babies from someone off craigslist. Obviously they had to of had a male rat since their are babies, don't know what happened to him. They could have kept him (they kept 1 baby) or he could have died not sure, didn't ask. I separated the 2 male babies the next day since I read they can start breeding at a young age.
Now for the question; is it possible for mom to be pregnant again? When I got her last Saturday she looked normal sized, maybe a little thin as they had ran out of food and was waiting for their disability check. Now today when I picked her up her stomach looked bigger and her nipples were more pronounced than before. When I looked up rat breeding on google it says they get like that when they are 2 weeks along. Is it possible she just gained some weight since she is getting regular meals now, or is it as I fear and I am going to have a litter of pups in a week Is it possible that her male babies got her pregnant, the woman said they was 5 weeks when I got them (6 now) but I am sure she could have got their age wrong.
So last week I picked up a mom rat and her 4- 5 week old babies from someone off craigslist. Obviously they had to of had a male rat since their are babies, don't know what happened to him. They could have kept him (they kept 1 baby) or he could have died not sure, didn't ask. I separated the 2 male babies the next day since I read they can start breeding at a young age.
Now for the question; is it possible for mom to be pregnant again? When I got her last Saturday she looked normal sized, maybe a little thin as they had ran out of food and was waiting for their disability check. Now today when I picked her up her stomach looked bigger and her nipples were more pronounced than before. When I looked up rat breeding on google it says they get like that when they are 2 weeks along. Is it possible she just gained some weight since she is getting regular meals now, or is it as I fear and I am going to have a litter of pups in a week Is it possible that her male babies got her pregnant, the woman said they was 5 weeks when I got them (6 now) but I am sure she could have got their age wrong.