# ARE YOU KIDDINJG ME?!!?



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Is it like just my luck with pregnant rats or what? My female girl Cupcake is apparently pregnant obviously, as her & my male PEW decided to escape & get it on, obviously, not intentionally, as i had them both seperated from eachother, but she managed to break free, : so, now i notice her & she's about a HUGE as a can be. Blah, to me, i have no idea how many days that she is, but from the looks of it, it's more so that she's going to POP anytime soon now. Ugh, why me, seriously lol.


----------



## Three Deep (Jan 8, 2009)

Hahaha Risque! Well all you can do now is hope for a small, healthy litter. Since you've already got the 8, you should be well prepared for and knowledgeable about babies! Out of curiosity, what color is mom?


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Haha, yah i'm lucky i know stuff already, but i have enough rats lol, i don't want anymore right now. lol. But here's a pic of Cupcake, she's tan & white, & her best buddy Swissguard who just had the 8 babies


----------



## Three Deep (Jan 8, 2009)

Well from the very very little I know about rat genetics, the babies will be fairly lightly colored if daddy is a PEW, right? Mom, and Swissguard are both beautiful! Love the name!


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Well Cupcake just had her babies right now, i went in there and to my suprise a TON of babies, more than swissguard, i have no idea how many as i can't count them right now. they are soo tiny. They indeed look smaller than swissguard's newborn babies. when i felt them, they were cold so i put more stuff in there to keep them warm


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Its hard to tell the genetics with PEW's...they may look PEW but be an agouti underneath it all  They are like all colours, so there's NO guarantee on wee ones colours.

I am glad she had a safe birth.


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Well I counted them this morning and she had 13 babies,holy cow. Too many lol. There's 1 baby,idk what is wrong with it,but looks reallly weird. At the top of his head its like dark red and blue and his 1 foot is dark red and blue. My other litter did not have this at all. Though my other litter was a bit bigger than these babies at birth. They are all the size of a pinkie finger and with the other litter 4wks ago,they were about the size of a thumb,which I think is weird. Idk what to think of the 1 baby though,I will post a pic of the baby in a bit,need some help on it.


----------



## Gizaz (Nov 20, 2008)

Maybe its bruised??


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Likely bruised from the birthing process...mom sometimes has to pull them out


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

ok thanks guys, that's what i thought might have happened. i just wanted to be sure that there was nothing wrong with the baby. Well, i now only have 10 baby ratties, 3 of the babies passed away today, i found 2 of them gone, but the 1 other one i'm assuming she ate it :/ I was so sad. she had stuffed the other 2 under all the bedding and fleece and im assuming they suffocated and passed along, i hope they rest in peace.  I'm worried now, b.c i keep thinking the others might pass away too  But i hope not, all we can do is hope.


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

zombiedork said:


> ok thanks guys, that's what i thought might have happened. i just wanted to be sure that there was nothing wrong with the baby. Well, i now only have 10 baby ratties, 3 of the babies passed away today, i found 2 of them gone, but the 1 other one i'm assuming she ate it :/ I was so sad. she had stuffed the other 2 under all the bedding and fleece and im assuming they suffocated and passed along, i hope they rest in peace.  I'm worried now, b.c i keep thinking the others might pass away too  But i hope not, all we can do is hope.


She would only hide the bodies after they were dead, so she didn't make them suffocate. There was something wrong with the pups so they died...so sad but bad genetics are rampant in our beloved rats from careless breeding, etc.


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Well found another baby passed away, we're down to 9 babies now.  And thanks lilspaz, i did not know that she would hide them. :/ Now all we can really do is hope now  9 babies, eating and looking good so far. The baby that passed away last night was the one that was bruised...it was also the smallest one,  I had sooo much hope for that baby.


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

zombiedork said:


> Well found another baby passed away, we're down to 9 babies now.  And thanks lilspaz, i did not know that she would hide them. :/ Now all we can really do is hope now  9 babies, eating and looking good so far. The baby that passed away last night was the one that was bruised...it was also the smallest one,  I had sooo much hope for that baby.


Its really sad, but the runts often pass.  And sometimes there can be several runts in a bigger litter.


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Well so far all 9 babies are doing well and so is momma :]


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Good news!!


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

Well down to 5 babies now. They are all doing well. The odd thing is they are all dark/black,& 1 of them is gray and another is white w/black. Fur still isn't alll the way in,so I'll have to wait. But that's weird since dad is PEW and momma is hooded white and tan. Hmm..


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

zombiedork said:


> Well down to 5 babies now. They are all doing well. The odd thing is they are all dark/black,& 1 of them is gray and another is white w/black. Fur still isn't alll the way in,so I'll have to wait. But that's weird since dad is PEW and momma is hooded white and tan. Hmm..


Not at all...PEW hides color genetics. A visible PEW may be an agouti under it all...its like they are many colours but they wash out and look PEW. Then you add in a black hooded daddy and you get lots of colour.

My PEW mom gave me; PEW's black berks, black hoodies, and agouti's.
My black variberk girl gave me; PEW's, black capped with a headspot, beige capped with a headspot.

Unless you know genetics, it can always be a surprise.

I am going to try to find a better explanation of the PEW's genetics...bbs


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

this is not what i wanted, but its a start

_Breeding a PEW is a complete crapshoot, like you said. For all we know, she could be a blue berkshire hidden under all those genes, she could be an agouti self, she could be anything... You just don't know because the genes that "cause" a pew will hide any markings or coloration that she would otherwise display. Therefore, breeding a black rat to a PEW rat wouldn't neccesarily cause an agouti (if I remember right anyway... I'm not completely positive how the pew genetics work). If she carried the genes of a black rat, the litter could be all black. If she carried agouti genes however, they would be agouti, since that is dominant over black._


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Ahh a little better...

_Pink Eyed Whites (PEW)

PEW’s are not albino, but rather a result of too many dilutions being mixed together causing the rat to be washed out of all color_


----------



## zombiedork (Jul 7, 2008)

alright i understand!! Thanks. i was just totally wondering lol. But yah it's really weird. Swissguard's babies were like 2 that are identical to momma, and all the rest were PEW, but not Cupcake's babies. lol. But totally thanks! I will keep you all updated.


----------

