# Is there any possibility of a pregnant rat?



## LisaPizza (Nov 7, 2012)

Hi all, I will try to keep this fairly short, but it is quite a long story!

I have 3x separate rat groups:
1 group of 3 adult males
1 group of 3 young males
1 group of 5 females and a neutered male

Last month, one of my older boys had a stroke and I'd put him in a small 1 level cage while he recovered after seeing the vet - after the vet he was very nervous and extremely jumpy, and had periods of time where it was like he was blind and deaf, and he had very poor motor skills, and other times when he seemed fine, but anyway. His small cage was in the same room as my girls cage, and one day he managed to get out of his cage - I've no idea how as both doors were still shut, and there were no holes or anything. Eventually I managed to get him back into a different cage, and made sure to secure the doors with little wire ties, and he hasn't escaped since then. 

Well recently one of my girls (or maybe a few, but one seems more obvious) seems to be quite round. My partner is absolutely certain she's pregnant (he's not particularly knowledgeable about rats but he's pretty annoyed that she seems pregnant). I just cannot fathom how a rat that recently had a stroke and vet treatment could possibly manage to mate at all, let alone through cage bars??? We know he'd been hanging around the cage as there were quite a few poops around there. The female does seem rounder, but not huge, but her mother didn't even look pregnant at all when she popped out surprise babies for me. 

Is there ANY possibility that this could have happened? She has never been near any other males except her neutered brother.

Thank you in advance :/


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Rats can't mate through bars. I has my boys roam the outside of the girls cage


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## LisaPizza (Nov 7, 2012)

I thought that that was the case, however now I'm not so sure - judging on rough dates of his escape I make it to be about 1 day past her theoretical due date, and she is not really very big which gives me some reassurance


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

If it has been 22 days, you likely have a fat girl especially if you have no second signs. 


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## LisaPizza (Nov 7, 2012)

That would be preferable, I can always change her diet! Size aside, I really cannot see how a recent stroke victim could have managed that anyway!


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## Korra (Dec 11, 2011)

Girl rats seem to be slim and trim and then suddenly get fat when they are about 6 months old in my experience.


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## LisaPizza (Nov 7, 2012)

Ah that is helpful, as they are about 6 months old now, although my first two (one being the mother of the girl in question) did not ever seem to put on much weight.


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