# pregnant hairless rat



## violetskys (Nov 19, 2021)

hi everyone ! im new here but im a long time rat mom. about a month ago got two rats, a russian blue (gary) and a hairless (bean), from a friend of a friend that rescued them from a hoarding situation. they came to me very young and very skinny. the woman who rescued them identified them both as boys. even though only the russian blue had visible balls, i thought maybe the hairless' just hadnt dropped yet. (ive had a hairless boy before and i remember him having very small, hardly visible balls when he was younger.) a couple of days ago, bean stretched and i saw what i thought looked like little warts on her stomach and it turns out they are nipples and she was incorrectly gendered by the woman who rescued them. 

i had already noticed she was gaining weight but she was so skinny when i first got her i thought maybe she was just getting healthy. i am now almost positive she is pregnant and i set her up in an aquarium with fleece bedding and lots of nesting materials for her but i feel so unprepared ! this was a completely accidental litter as i believe in rescuing before breeding, but that doesn't change the fact that she might be pregnant ! i have no idea how far along she might be as she was with gary, her male cage mate, for a month before i realized she was a girl. 

ive done a lot of research to prepare for her to have her babies, but this is a first for me and i would love some advice from people who have been through rat pregnancy before. ive read that hairless moms can neglect their babies and struggle to produce enough milk for them. im going to call some pet stores tomorrow to see if they have any pregnant moms that can be good foster moms and message some breeders in my area for advice and/or a foster mom. i am prepared to hand feed as a last resort but i know that is a huge undertaking and can be a big risk to the babies. she also came to me very small and honestly cant be more than three months old. im really worried about how young she is and how the pregnancy will effect her and her babies. any advice would be hugely appreciated !

gary and bean also came to me with very bad mites and gary had a bunch of scabs on his neck and face from scratching so much. ive dealt with mites before and used horse ivermectin one a week for three weeks and it worked great so i did the same thing for gary and bean but now that i know bean is pregnant, i am worried about how the ivermectin may have affected her babies, if at all.

miss bean being a girl was completely not on my radar and now im very unprepared for the little rat babies but i would love to keep them and provide a safe happy home for them so any and all advice on how to best do that would be greatly appreciated ! thank you !!

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## ratbusters (Aug 28, 2020)

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Congrats on your new rats. Even though nobody would recommend breeding rats so young on purpose, I wouldn't be too concerned about your pregnant rat being only 3 months old - we had a female who gave birth to accidental litter at 3 months, and she did fine. She did seem to stay quite small into adulthood but other than that, no obvious ill effects.
Here is some info that might help you get prepared.. I don't have any experience with hairless rats and their specific nursing needs, but this might be generally helpful regarding cages, etc. Keep us posted!


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