What will my rat do to get ready to give birth to her litter?

Question

I have been putting my pet rat Jazmine in a cage with my sister's male pet rat.she looks like she has a tennis ball in her stomach and her nipples look bigger.I think she should have her babys very soon but i need to know if there are any sings that will show me she is about to have her babies.So please reply.

Answer 1

She'll probably spend more time nest-building & sleeping. She *may* become a bit nippy but not necessarilly.
If Jazmine shares her cage with other girls they might begin sleeping a bit farther from her. I've heard that it's best to remove any cage-mates but we didn't know this when one of our rats had pups & everything worked out fine (she had babies on the way when we adopted her).
It takes only 21-23 days for the babies to arrive. I hope you have some good homes lined up for those pups if you can't keep them all.

Answer 2

She will give birth 21 days after the first time you put her in with the male rat.
Unless you plan to leave her with the male (I've never tried this with rats, though I've done it with mice), you should keep her in her own cage from now on. She needs a stable environment or she may be afraid to care for the babies, and they may die.
She needs some bedding (I use tissues) in the cage. Leave her alone unless she is extremely tame; you don't want to upset her at this time. Once the babies are born, leave them alone for a few days, just give them food and water. Start handling them when they open their eyes, so that they will be well socialized little rats.

Answer 3

ok no i'm unlikely to declare eww. It seems such as you're particularly lots arranged for the birthing of you animals clutter. additionally confident it does sound like the rat is approximately to furnish beginning. it may take rats everywhere from 2-6 hours of hard artwork till they have the toddlers. No i dont think of you're able to desire to sleep by the cage yet once you're rather worried then you certainly can mabye verify on her each and every hour or so. That way if something is going incorrect then you certainly could have time to call a vet or remedy the project. She could desire to be waiting to deal with the transport without to many issues so which you're able to desire to no longer hardship to lots. desire this helped Congrats and solid success. :) p.s if she is napping uncomfortably that probable skill she is going to have them quickly if there is not any longer any blood on her "ehem" section be certain you verify her for any conceivable injuries yet be carefully, pregnant rats may be mean

Answer 4

she'll build more nests and start to get a bit more defensive make sure you put extra food in know and when the babies are born. she'll also do less exercise. good luck with your new baby rats p.s are you keepong all the rats cuz if you are one of the baby rats might be male and after a couple of weeks he might start with the mother. good luck

Answer 5

she will start making a huge bed
she will start drinking more and eating more.
your hamster should not like it when you touch her stomach.
usaully it takes 21-23 days to have her babies.
she will start to kind of fight with the male hamster.

Answer 6

ok well the blooting (as u discribed a tennise ball look)
is a sure sign ...well at least 5 days after she starts to bloot she will give birth...so u have got ur sign

Gestation period for rats is normally 21-24 days, although it can be as long as 25 and there have been cases of delayed implantation recorded that have allowed the pregnancy to go on for as long as 35 days on rare occasions - there are often problems if the pregnancy extend for more than 24 days though.

During the pregnancy you should maintain a good healthy diet for your doe. Do not increase the diet during pregnancy as this can cause birthing problems if the doe becomes too fat during pregnancy.

A good tip while your doe is pregnant, is to weigh her regularly. Does gain between 30-60g per week during pregnancy and generally gain between 100-150g total. If you get into the habit of weighing your rats regularly, you can often see when things are not right as well.

You will probably notice a temperament change in your pregnant doe, particularly as the time gets close to her birthing when her hormones are raging! Normally pregnant does temporarily rise to alpha in their cage, but some may become quite aggressive to their usual mates and need separating off earlier. Normally I put the pregnant doe in a nursery cage when they have about a 3-4 days to go. I will quite often leave a sister or mother or close friend in with her until the last day - sometimes they are happy with this, but sometimes they prefer to be alone.

Ideal nursery cages are the Rody or Duma type tanks with a Rody igloo for a nice secure nest. The Rody igloos split in half making it easy for inspection of the newborns without upsetting mum too much.



In the final few days, the doe normally goes into manic nest building and can build some amazing mountains, usually including food bowls, toys, food, treats and anything else you leave in the cage for her! It is best to leave the doe to her own devices during these last few days and not to handle them or interfere with their environment too much.



When your doe is starting the birthing, she will seem restless and will probably destroy her nest again. You may see a spot of watery blood at the urethra and the birthing should start soon after this. Usually it's fairly quick and the whole process is over in a matter of a couple of hours. If the birthing goes on for much longer, keep a close eye on the doe for signs of distress, excess bleeding, signs that she is no longer having contractions even though it looks like she has more kittens on the way (uterine inertia). It is only a small percentage of birthings that will experience difficulties, but when they do, they can be fatal for either doe or kittens or both so making good judgements at this stage is important. Uterine inertia is probably one of the more common, whereby the contractions have either stopped or are too weak to push the kittens out. This can be treated by your vet with Oxytocin, but this seems to have limited success and a caesarean is occasionally needed or the doe can be left to birth naturally if she is not showing distress. If the doe is not bleeding much and is showing no distress, she may well be capable of aborting the litter herself, but if she has become very large during pregnancy or is bleeding quite heavily, immediate vet care is needed. Bleeding or distress could be because of a blocked (fat, turned the wrong way or dead) kitten, so keep a close eye and if this is looking to be the case, see if the doe will let you massage her stomach, but again, there is a chance that a caesarean may be needed. Unfortunately when it gets to a stage of needing a caesarean, quite often the doe is too tired and weak and may not survive the operation or may only survive for a few days afterwards as the shock can kill them later. There are success stories though, so it's not a lost cause. Another side use for Oxytocin is that it can start a doe lactating if she hasn't started, so can be used after the birth has completed as well. One of the keys to judging whether what is going wrong is likely to need veterinary assistance, is to check the colour of the blood and the consistency - watery 'red' blood is normal as long as it's not excessive, 'red' blood appearing to be more blood than water needs to be watched carefully. If the blood is darker red or brownish, the kittens are almost certainly dead inside her - she needs to be put on antibiotics at this stage to stop any decomposing kittens from causing her infection and keep an eye on her, but chances are she will pass the dead kittens by about day 27.

Caring and correct feeding of the kittens starts as soon as they are born. Shortly after the mother has started giving birth, you can offer her tepid water with either sugar or honey in as they appreciate this far more than cold water. You should leave a bowl with her usual dry food in but in addition you should start supplementing the mother with an 'easy' diet - lots of soft, easy to eat, protein foods, like EMP (egg food for hand-rearing birds which rats love - soak to porridge consistency), eggs, chicken, tinned cat and dog foods (look for the higher protein ones aimed at puppies and kittens), fish and anything else she fancies. Pasta, porridge, yoghurts, etc. are also appreciated. She will also appreciate tepid milk, either the baby formula or the ones intended for puppies and kittens are best - this can be either in a bottle or mixed with a little bread in a bowl.

Kittens are born completely naked apart from their whiskers (hence being able to tell rex from straight coat kittens as soon as they are born with either curly or straight whiskers!). By 2-3 days old you can normally see the patterns if they are going to be marked rats and also you can tell what colour the eyes are going to be from the pigment colour under the skin. The kittens eyes will remain closed until around 14 days, but during that first 2 weeks, they will grow considerably and also have their baby coats. They are born at approximately 5-6g and should be around 30-35g by 2 weeks old. Some kittens will blindly start adventuring and also start eating, while others are more interested in staying in the nest and letting mum do all the work!

Kittens should be handled from birth regularly on a daily basis. Scientific proof has been given that handling kittens from birth reduces stress and stress related illnesses in later life. I use the Ferplast Duna or Savic Rody cages as nurseries for the first two weeks as these are easy to 'steal' the whole igloo to look at the kittens away from the mother if she gets stressed seeing you handling them when they are very young. Most does become far less stressed about their kittens being handled when the kittens open their eyes and start moving around more and at this stage I prefer to move the kittens to a low level cage like a Ferplast Mary and give mum a hammock so she can escape the babies for a rest.



Once the kittens have opened their eyes, they are usually up to mischief and into everything. Continue with the 'easy' diet and the milk as the kittens will enjoy it and it will give mum a break as they will be getting quite a bit of the required sustenance from solid food.