Guess I'm going to be a rat "foster grandma"....

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undergunfire

undergunfire

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I have two foster rat girls. One baby girl, Spice, was from a former co-worker who gave her to me with her brother, Spook. Spook passed away in October.

Since Spice was lonely and it would be easier to adopt out a pair of rats...I told Ryan's friend to rescue a baby girl rat from his Dad's rat breeding colony (his Dad breeds reptiles). I have actually seen his set up, and it is very clean and not filthy, like most would think a rat breeding colony would be like. He had been getting out of breeding and his rat breeding stock was going to be sold off to another reptile breeder.

Anyway...."Mint"....is soooo going to pop out some babies, probably tomorrow night. Her belly has ballooned over the past few days and her nipples are very obvious. I am so mad because I just wasn't expecting this, but I probably should have been. It's terrible news if the babies all come out as "PEW's" (pink eyed whites) because it is hard enough rehoming rats of color around here...rehoming PEWs is going to be impossible.

Just so every one knows....I did not breed her to my boys. She is not near the boys and I have only had her for about 2 weeks, so that means she was pregnant before she came to me (rats give birth at average 30 days).

I have to borrow a 10 gal. tank from the nice older lady who adopted two of Ralphie's brothers, when I was fostering their litter. I'll have to get the tank tomorrow night from Anne, so hopefully Mint holds out and doesn't have them tonight or tomorrow during the day.



PLEASE send vibes for a SMALL litter. Rats can have up to 20 babies, mostly. By small, I mean less than 10 :?.



Ugh. Anyone want to make this fun for all and guess how many babies Mint will have....and the number of each gender of babies :p?
 
What does she look like? Hey, my angel girl Peppermint "Minty" Rattie (and her 2 sisters and brother who were all PEWs) take offense to you hoping not to have PEW babies! I'm just kidding, I know that a lot of people don't like PEWs. I think they're lovely and wonderful, but I know a lot of people dislike them :(

Anyway, good luck with the babies! Please keep the thread updated, I love pictures of little baby ratties. I hope she only has a couple and they're all the same gender! Do you have any pics of Mint?
 
Mint is a PEW, herself. I do not have any pictures of her. I have been slacking in the "picture department". She just looks like...a PEW :D!

I'll try to get pictures tomorrow. She bit me 2 days ago, so I have been avoiding her. She is not tamed at all. Hopefully after the babies are older she will mellow out and be a bit nicer, hehe.

I will surely update this thread, a lot!

Are you going to take a guess on how many babies she has and how many of each gender :p?
 
Hmmm... before making my guess, I need more info! How old is she? And you say she's balloon like? You should post pictures of her tennis ball belly! And what do I (er... the person who guesses correctly) get for winning the contest? :biggrin2:
 
SnowyShiloh wrote:
Hmmm... before making my guess, I need more info! How old is she? And you say she's balloon like? You should post pictures of her tennis ball belly! And what do I (er... the person who guesses correctly) get for winning the contest? :biggrin2:
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Ohhh...my guess is a young 11 weeks old :?. I can try to snap those pictures tomorrow, if she will be a good girl!

Ehhhh...as for winning....uhhhh.....I'll have to get back to you on that one :biggrin2:!
 
I am guessing twelve babies. four boys and the rest girls.

Good luck with them! I'm looking forward to pics even though i don't really like rats.
 
Oh My! I can't wait to see them, Amy!

I think she's going to have 13 and only 3 are going to be girls.
 
No babies as of right now :p. I will snap some belly shots after work today, if I can manage to do so. I can't handle her right now or I risk a bitten finger :p.



I still can't believe this, argggg. At least the lady who adopted Ralphie's brothers said she would gladly let me borrow some decent cages from her....and she would even adopt two girls....and foster some if I needed her too :).

It is going to be tough not to keep two babies, but I really 100% need a break after my adult boys pass on. I go back and forth on this, but I need to break, really.
 
undergunfire wrote:
Since Spice was lonely and it would be easier to adopt out a pair of rats...I told Ryan's friend to rescue a baby girl rat from his Dad's rat breeding colony (his Dad breeds reptiles).
Click to expand...

Even if the breeding colony is nice and clean, be on the lookout for ringworm. I worked at a pet store for about two years, and we would get ringworm from our "feeder" rats. We had all checked out the breeding facility, and it was SUPER clean. It was freakishly clean. I don't know how they were getting it, but we had several groups come in with ringworm (and it spread to my face). Fun. Note: there was one rat in particular who was a real sweetie and he would hitch a ride on my shoulder around the store. That's how it got spread to my face and looked like I had a giant hickey :grumpy:

Anyway...."Mint"....is soooo going to pop out some babies, probably tomorrow night. Her belly has ballooned over the past few days and her nipples are very obvious.
Click to expand...

Hehe, pregnant rodents are always funny (awkward) looking. They always have reminded me of pears. You know, pear-shaped from above view?

...rehoming PEWs is going to be impossible.
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Sometimes, if you pair up PEW's white with a colored rat (even if it's white with black eyes) they are more desirable to a potential owner. Socializing also helps a lot. That's why I carried "Milton" around with me in the store. We hid the rats in the back room so people wouldn't see them. I would take the nice ones out and carry them around with me so people would see them, freak out, then ask why it was chillin' on my shoulder/in my shirt collar. I saved a few from the snake pit that way. :D

Also, do you know what color rat she was housed with previously? (Maybe your friend could help?) If she's a PEW and was housed with other PEW's, you're going to have all PEW's. If someone had a little color, your chances go up a bit for something more "festive". :)

...she was pregnant before she came to me (rats give birth at average 30 days).
Click to expand...

They are almost better at reproducing that rabbits lol

PLEASE send vibes for a SMALL litter. Rats can have up to 20 babies, mostly. By small, I mean less than 10 :?.
Click to expand...

Do you know her age or if this is her first litter? My experience with rodent reproduction is that they have a smaller number with their first litter and it goes up exponentially from there.

Ugh. Anyone want to make this fun for all and guess how many babies Mint will have....and the number of each gender of babies :p?
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I will go with seven as my guess :p Four and three (girls and boys, respectively).

Well, those are my comments to this whole "dilemma". Good luck finding homes for your ratty babies! ^_^ They are so cute when they are little (baby animals almost always are!) :D Good luck!
 
Awww... good luck with the little guys. I know I replied to the bulletin on Myspace but I still wanted to comment. Hope it's a small litter. I know my foster girl (Annie) had 11 babies and those things eat... NON STOP!

I'm gonna say 10 little rattie babies. *crosses fingers*
I know Annie got mega moody before she popped.
 
kherrmann3 wrote:
Even if the breeding colony is nice and clean, be on the lookout for ringworm.

There is no ring worm, here :).


Sometimes, if you pair up PEW's white with a colored rat (even if it's white with black eyes) they are more desirable to a potential owner. Socializing also helps a lot......
Also, do you know what color rat she was housed with previously? (Maybe your friend could help?) If she's a PEW and was housed with other PEW's, you're going to have all PEW's. If someone had a little color, your chances go up a bit for something more "festive". :)

Not true, if she was housed with all PEW's, I could still get color...probably common black, beige, or fawn hoodies or capped. I just don't know what is in her genes.



Do you know her age or if this is her first litter? My experience with rodent reproduction is that they have a smaller number with their first litter and it goes up exponentially from there.

She is 11 weeks old, roughly, and this surely is her first litter. Even though she is young and this is her first litter, she could have a lot of babies. It all depends on the particular rat, not their experience with carrying litters.
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Anyway, no babies....yet! Ryan is on his way home with the tank from Anne. I am going to let it warm up from being in the cold, then set it all up for her.
 
Ok - I'll guess. I know nothing about rats....how big their litters are or anything.

So I'll guess 6 babies (probably way too low) and to make things more tempting for Amy- 4 boys and 2 girls...

That way she'll want to keep 2/3 of the litter...

:biggrin2:
 
I'm going to be strong and not keep ANY :biggrin2:. I'm very seriously taking a break from rats after my boys pass away. I will probably sell my FN141 cage and any other cages laying around to resist the urge! Though, I am attached to my FN cage, so I may just take it all apart and hold onto it for the future.



Mint is nesting in her tank ;). I made it all nice and put together...and she has torn every thing apart and is going nuts at rearranging.She even flipped over her pretty pink igloo hut! Hopefully, the babies will come tonight so we can get this darn thing over with :p.

I'm going to take my guess....

8 babies. 3 males and 5 females.
 
No babies, yet :p! She has made her little nest, maybe she will have them today or tonight. She has been grooming herself like crazy this morning.
 
I thought that PEW is recessive? Is it the same as albino? (I always thought so). With hamsters, it is. I used to breed them :p If you breed an albino with an albino, you will always get albinos. There is no color gene in either parent. If she had a colored gene she would be colored. That's why white animals are hard to get from dark(er) stock. They have to be offspring from two heterozygous parents (and there is only a 1 in 4 chance of the genes being right). That is just my experience from hamsters, anyone else know about rats?
 
YAY! Little pinkies! Can't wait!

undergunfire wrote:
No babies, yet :p! She has made her little nest, maybe she will have them today or tonight. She has been grooming herself like crazy this morning.
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I highly doubt she is from a whole line of PEW's. Ryan's friend's dad had color in his stock.

If you were a registered breeder breeding for PEW's and bred all through the lines of PEW....you will get all PEW babies. However, Mint may have color genes, which could throw color in her litter.


I think at about day 3 I should be able to tell. When they are born, if they all have pink eyes (you can see through the skin), then I will assume they are all PEWs.



Hopefully we have color, though, so there will be a happy outcome of ALL babies getting adopted!


Oh, p.s.....no babies, yet :shock:. She is sleeping a lot, so hopefully they will come TONIGHT, darnit!
 
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