Jezebel Rattie Girl...:(

[Rochelle]

Our new girl "Ivana" has decided to go slumming on the wrong side of the tracks...
Even though she's kept on 'lock down' at night and was previously thought to not be able to escape her cage - she's been found inside our room mate's boy-rat cage in the mornings! (It's always locked - he isn't friendly).
They are kept in completely different rooms of the house and roomie's rat is a feeder rat that he 'rescued' from a pet store. She, on the other hand...is a double rex semi-hairless dumbo who we did not intend to breed.
After researching the breeding info on the net - we discovered how to ascertain whether or not she's been bred..and she definitely has the mucus plug that we were shown.
The main problem is that she's so small (about 3.5 months).... is this going to affect her health, in the long term? We got so many different answers on the sites we visited, that we're more confused than when we started...hehe.
She's so sweet tempered (other than being of loose morals..lol) and we'd really hate to have her change in any way. Normally she's always riding on someone's shoulders or in their pockets, hoodies, hair, etc..... Should we stop carrying her around so much; or is she good to go? We feel terrible having to leave her in her brand new "Fort Knox" cage (bought today)...she looks at us like "what did I do? I'm sorry!".... makes me feel about 2" tall....

 

[Aurelia]

Oh my gosh... it seems to be a week for this sort of thing doesn't it? Too old, too young...I hope you have much better luck with her than I did with Skye.

 

[Rochelle]

Yeah ~ she's our sweetie. I'm really worried about her long term health.

 

[Mina]

She should be fine, my female that got pregnant became so at right about 3 months old. She did fine, had 10 healthy babies. She was always healthy after that until she started getting tumors. The only thing different about her was it did stunt her growth. All of her daughters were bigger at adult size than she was.
Remember wild rats start getting pregnant as soon as they are physically able to. She will probably have a smaller litter than a larger female.
You can still handle her but be very gentle. And if you think you feel bad now, wait until after she has the babies and they are half her size and still nursing. If she is anything like my Nikki was, she will be at the door on her hind legs, with a pitiful look on her face. "Please, Mom, rescue me from these things, would you?" As the babies try to knock her off her feet so they can nurse.

 

[Rochelle]

Oh,GOD! The thought makes my eyes hot...I'm so worried about her.
She's the sweetest thing in the world....
She's really small for her age, and that can't help at all...
We SO didn't mean for her to breed! :wall:
I'm still amazed that she went to such lengths to get the deed done...I feel like I dropped the ball.

 

[Newyork]

I don't own rats . . . I'll say that right off . . . but i do have gerbils and when my two female gerbils had babies (never trust pet stores) the female was way too young and she was very small. She went on to have two litters (didn't get the male out fast enough) but was okay. She did have a short life span (only two years) but this was because she had seizures which I think were genetic as two of the three babies I kept also had similar problems. One of the babies is still alive now and he is three years old. His father who probably was related to the mother (can it get any worse!) has surived to be four years old . . . that's pretty old for a gerbil. The mother remained small all through her short life which may have been a result of the breeding. Just my experiance.

A rat trying so hard to get bred doesn't suprise me. Dog's in heat will go to extreme measures to procreate.

 

[arachyd]

As already stated, wild rats get pregnant as soon as they are able. She will probably be fine. Keep holding her and giving her play time and there shouldn't be any problems with her becoming defensive about the babies. Make sure she can get plenty of exercise to keep her fit and strong for the delivery but make sure she can't fall and hurt herself. Mine loved romping around in a rat-proofed room for about an hour every day.