# Mis-sexed oops litter and question about lack of aggression?



## schuksudoon (Aug 28, 2013)

We have royally screwed up and I feel awful. Back in August my boyfriend and I adopted a rat off of craigslist who turned out to be pregnant, she gave birth to eight babies on September 6th, and we have since adopted out a few of them. My friend and I were the ones that sexed them, and I don't know how it happened, but we mixed up on one of them and accidentally put a girl in with the boys.

This whole time I feel like I could have noticed the difference if I would have paid closer attention to her, but we were trying to spend equal time with all of them, and yet again, I let my mistake slip right past me. I've thought she was a boy this whole time, and I didn't think much of her weight gain because she was always the first one to the food. Now in hindsight, just thinking about all of the clues I had along the way, it's so obvious to me.

This morning I was bringing a snack to the rats and heard that all-too familiar squeaking coming from the boys cage and my heart dropped. She was on the top level of our cage, so it was kind of tricky to get her out, but I was able to get her and the eleven babies out of the fleece nest she had up there. She's so young, and I'm extremely nervous about that.

I'm also a little concerned about her behavior. When Mama Frankie gave birth she was extremely aggressive, and I've read that's the norm from some of the threads on here. Charlie was not like that at all, though. I picked her up using the hammock, but she didn't struggle, nor act defensive at all. And when I was moving the babies to her cage, I wore a glove, but she wasn't behaving aggressively at all. The last four of the babies I was able to actually hand her myself, she took them right out of my palm very nicely. Is this a cause for concern? She's always been super sweet personality-wise, but I assumed there would be a shift now with this new dynamic.

I did notice the boys were more aggressive, though. They've never minded me reaching in the cage, but when I put my hand in there anywhere near Charlie, Roquefort and Andy went as far as pulling and biting at my sleeve, when they've never done anything like that before. And the third boy, Benny, was under the fleece with Charlie and also seemed upset that I was in there. I had to get them all out because of how difficult they were making everything.

I've since made Charlie an egg for breakfast, she's got plenty of Oxbow pellets, and the nursery is set up. I know from last time I'm supposed to check regularly for milk bands and make sure mom gets plenty of protein, but aside from those things, is there anything else that I can do to make this as least stressful as it can be? I still feel really awful that this happened at all, the poor girl.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Make sure she is separate from the boys or in 21 days another litter will pop out.
Rats behave according to their personality, and her being nonaggressive means she trusts you.

As for the males, the aggression happens after mating. It'll take a while to calm down and may even need a neuter...


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## schuksudoon (Aug 28, 2013)

I separated her the second I was able to place who it was that was the female, she was the first one out of the cage. I don't know if she gave birth last night or this morning though, but either way, she had to have been with them for a little while before I noticed anything was amiss. I was already kind of worried about that after the fact. Is it immediate turn around time to get pregnant, or is there a little period that she might have slipped through?

I'm glad to hear the personality bit, I was afraid she may have gotten hurt during labor.

As far as I can tell, the boys are acting normally with each other. I haven't seen them do much other than sleep together, it was just when I was around.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Persistent males can mate with females immediately following labor, especially if she isn't being aggressive over them.


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