# On the Watch!!



## Zenia (Dec 3, 2010)

I feel like such a total n00b.

To preface, I have a double FN. I have it separated in the middle, even going as far as to have 1/2 mesh between the halves and all over the sides/bottom/top. This is because in the top of the cage I have my neutered Himalayan boy Lucky in with my Russian Blue unaltered girl Pepper. In the bottom half I have two unaltered boys, a Russian Blue called Sheldon and a PEW called Dexter.

Anyway, since my Himalayan has been getting picked on by Pepper... he has a big gashed scab on the top of his head, a bite on his ear, rump, foreleg, hindleg and a small bite on his tail and under his jaw, I decided to try him out in the other half of the cage with the baby boys after I found him not in the cage (I made a post in this board called 'Escapee!' and wrote about it). I tried it out for the weekend and it went really well. A minor tiff here and there while he is trying to tell the babies that he is the boss in this cage!

Since I had to work on Tuesday and my roommate didn't, I asked her to keep an ear out and if she heard a lot of squeaking/screaming coming form my room if she could please put the Himalayan boy back into the top part of the cage since fights between him and Pepper don't happen too much and he could be ok up there until I got home and could supervise again. So she knew that I have one blue rat and one white rat per cage half.

I got home and she said she moved 'the white one' since there was fighting. I sighed and went upstairs where I discovered... the wrong white rat was put into the top half! I don't know how the torpedoes got missed (maybe she just tried to do it as fast as possible 'cause she doesn't really like them?) but now I am on pregnancy watch. AUGH

I am going to email the vet and ask how much an e-spay is but I don't think I have enough in my vet fund and since my work is closed for the week of Christmas, it means I have to save as much money as I can so I can make it through January (even if it means only eating rice from the dollar store again... but at least I just made a new batch of Suebees). GAAAAAAAH

All I know is that if she does have babies, it is very close to her 1st birthday (she will be 1 on Jan 12th) and I need to know if that might cause her trouble... and that all the babies will be dumbo-eared.








x a million


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## rattiesalem24 (Feb 21, 2010)

I saw this on GM :-[
Anyway, I don't think that 1 year would cause trouble, I bet she would be fine, but still be careful.

Fingers crossed that she isn't pregnant!


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## Zenia (Dec 3, 2010)

I hope that both she isn't pregnant (since they are only in heat once every five days there is a chance she isn't!) and that if she is, nothing goes wrong... Since I read somewhere that if you are intentionally breeding, girls should be younger than 1yr.


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## eluin (Jan 25, 2010)

Yeah, but I think that is optimal breeding age. She shouldn't have any more complications than any other rat would. I'll be hoping she isn't pregnant for you. Either that or that lots of Christmas money shows up and you can get an e-spay. Dumbos might be slightly easier to find homes for, but I've heard people have troubles placing PEWs since they are so common. Hopefully everything goes well and she just turns out to have had a romantic evening, and no babies!


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## Zenia (Dec 3, 2010)

That is one good thing about PEWs here... there are almost never any. That is the reason I snapped Dexter up when I saw him. Most rats people see are black hoods or variously marked ones in Agouti or Beige. Unless you get rats through Evergreen, then you get to see Russian Blue/Beige/Platinum(?).

Yeah for no babies (or a very small litter)!


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## eluin (Jan 25, 2010)

We NEVER see them up here either, though the only place to get rats in Traverse is a really bad pestore, a really bad breeder, or PetsMart and honestly PetsMart treats their rats better than the bad breeder does, which is pathetic. I've never seen a PEW in any of the stores, everything that we've had that could have been wound up developing light points and turning into a himi instead.
One way you can start to tell if she is pregnant is to start weighing her every on at the same time and recording the weights. If you don't start seeing consistant weight gain, you might be in the clear.


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## Zenia (Dec 3, 2010)

That is a good idea. We have a small scale that should be able to take accurate gram weights. I am also going to be watching her like a hawk to see if she goes into heat. She does the hopping-vibrating thing, so it should be easy to spot.


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## Alethea (Jul 14, 2010)

Good luck and let us know if you start seeing a fat belly :3 For your sake I would hope that she is not pregnant.


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## Zenia (Dec 3, 2010)

Well, the good news is that Lucky and Sheldon (the baby who would come up and bug him only for Lucky to turn on him) seem to be getting along great now. They are even sleeping together, curled up in the runabout-ball-bed.

Bad news, is that I haven't seen Pepper go into heat this week.


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