# Pregnant? Not pregnant? Postpartum pregnancy gestation? Oh, shelter rat!



## Faolain (Feb 5, 2015)

This is Cornelia. Poor picture, I know . . . but sitting still is never on her schedule. She was found behind a PetSmart with five of her daughters on either 1/8/15, I can't remember the exact intake date. I'll have to look at her shelter papers . . . The employees took them in to the OKC Shelter where they were held until 1/12/15 due to "stray time."

Anyway. I took her and two of her daughters while another rescue lady took the other three. I will be adopting mine, but haven't yet in case any of them wound up with babies that needed to go into the rescue.

Cornelia was almost emaciated when we got her, much thinner than the other ratties. I could feel her spine, ribs, and sharp little shoulder blades. After a week or so of good food, she gained weight . . . and then kept gaining . . . and then wound up with the "pear shape" of a pregnant ratty.

What has me worried is this is day 28 since she was found. I know postpartum pregnancies can go on a week or so longer than normal pregnancies, so I still have her separated in a 10g tank with a ton of bedding and nesting material. She has made and dismantled several nests, taken to burying her food, and gone through all the motions . . . but no babies. I don't know under what circumstances she was bred, so I can't rule out a postpartum pregnancy.

Her nipples are prominent, her weight "shifted" down to the bottom of her abdomen a couple of days ago, but still . . . no babies.

Here are some equally-poor tummy images. She's a busy lady and doesn't have time for my picture-taking nonsense. What I'm seeing doesn't come out well in these pictures, but you can see how large and prominent her nipples are.






















And the current monstrosity she's constructed . . . 









She is happy, healthy, bouncy, peeing, pooping, eating, and drinking normally. She just . . . looks a bit like a blimp and has gone on for longer than I'd hoped.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Am I crazy?


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## Daize (Jun 8, 2013)

If she hasn't been around a "breeding age" male in the last "28 days". Then she's NOT pregnant. 

Gestation is 21 to 23 days. 

Her nipples are more prominent, because she nursed a litter recently. Sometimes it takes several months for them to go back to normal. Sometimes, they never do. 

She was emaciated when you got her. Now she's a nice weight for her size. She does "not" look pregnant. 

Healthy rats can recover from weight loss very quickly. That's what you're seeing.


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## Faolain (Feb 5, 2015)

I don't know if she was with a male 28 days ago or not. All I know is that she was dumped behind a PetSmart with 5 other younger females.


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