# False pregnancy?



## slauderdale (Feb 22, 2012)

Hi,
I was referred to the good people of The Rat Forum by Mainely Rat Rescue. I have an adult female Rat, Pie, who is probably 21 to 22 months old. I recently adopted two additional rats, April and Nicodemus. April is a female, and Nicodemus is neutered (it was done before I got him, to curb rat aggression, and I've had an intact male before: Nicodemus really doesn't have anything back there.) 

In the past week my rat Pie has started going nuts carrying nesting materials up to the box she shares with the other two. I'd be paranoid that she was pregnant if it weren't for their respective conditions - and anyway, I would assume that she would kick them out if she really was preparing to be a mother. When I open the cage door for hang-out time she immediately grabs my sleeve and starts yanking on it. It's making me mildly worried, though it could just be she is bored and/or wants more attention.

I dropped MRR a note on facebook and they referred me to this forum. One possibility they mentioned was that Pie could be treating these two rats like her babies, and I sure hope that's all it is. Even though it is ridiculous, I do keep trying to take a look at Pie's belly. I can see her nipples, but I don't think they're more prominent than they have been. Her belly feels "firm," although I've not pressed the matter because she's starting to get annoyed with me about it. I feel like it might be bigger, but what if she's just eating more because of the other rats? I am just paranoid enough that I'm going to clean out my old aquarium cage tonight - and maybe I should buy a gram scale: it would probably be good for me to have one anyway, right? 

My chief concern, if she was pregnant, is that she's almost two years old and hasn't been pregnant before, and the prospect of her giving birth worries me. Please feel free to mock my concerns about virgin births.


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