# A couple of questions....



## 2boysloose (Jun 27, 2008)

Ok, if someone could answer a couple questions for me, then it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
-Just to clarrify, two pregnant girls cannot be housed together?
-What are the signs of being a pregnant rat? 
-What does nesting look like?
-Does it mean anything if a female rat tries to carry around her own tail, or another girls tail?
-Does it mean anything when they are really hiper, and move things around perfectly to their liking, and pile bedding every where?
-How young can they become pregnant?
-How quickly does mating take place?
-Will the make still most likley mate with females if he is really young?
To anyone that can answer my questions, Thanks!!!


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## BlueSkyy (Sep 27, 2007)

They can get pregnant as early as 5 weeks (I think) but this extremely dangerous for the mother. Mating takes place in like 1 or 2 seconds, if you blink you could miss it. It's so fast it would be over before you could stop it. An older female won't usually allow a young male to mate with her, but I don't know about a young female and a young male together...

Someone else can get the other questions, I've never owned females before.


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## 2boysloose (Jun 27, 2008)

Thanks for trying sky!


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

2boysloose said:


> Ok, if someone could answer a couple questions for me, then it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
> -Just to clarrify, two pregnant girls cannot be housed together?


They can but it depends on the rats. Because you can't predict this behavior it is safest to separate the pregnant female from all other rats & keep her in a set up that is safe for babies. 



> -What are the signs of being a pregnant rat?


Most clear sign are not visible until just a day or two before the babies are born. Best way to determine pregnancy is weighing the rat on a gram scale daily at approximately the same time each day.




> -What does nesting look like?


fairly obvious, it looks like a nest... but not every rat builds a nest if they pregnant & not every nest built is because a rat is pregnant. Males create nests.



> -Does it mean anything if a female rat tries to carry around her own tail, or another girls tail?


Not really. I've seen rats at play grab each other's tails & drag each other around.



> -Does it mean anything when they are really hiper, and move things around perfectly to their liking, and pile bedding every where?


It means they are house keeping & completely normal. If you are talking about girls... girls are hyper.



> -How young can they become pregnant?


5 to 6 weeks but there are reports of rats in mixed colonies becoming pregnant as early as 4 weeks



> -How quickly does mating take place?


1.5 seconds & that includes foreplay & a cigarette afterward <wink>




> -Will the make still most likley mate with females if he is really young?


yes... siblings kept together after that 5 to 6 week mark have & will breed that is why it is so very important to properly sex them & separate no later than that 5th week.



> To anyone that can answer my questions, Thanks!!!


You're Welcome... there are many knowledgeable people on this board & we are all here with hopes to answer questions like this & offer the best advice & answers we can based on our experience.

I know you were shopping for girls. If you bought two girls from a store where males & females were grouped together you potentially brought home pregnant rats. We can all hope this is not the case since young mothers don't do well & from your other posts you have started, you are not set up with adequate nursery enclosures or long term housing for the possible addition of 20 more rats.


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