# Hermaphrodite rat



## Wench (Apr 5, 2007)

Three or four weeks ago my girlfriend and I bought another rat, a young girl who was living in a cage with her brothers.

The petstore employee informed us that Pig (our new girl) was indeed a female, and we examined her ourselves. She was the same age as all of the others in the cage, who had quite prominent and obvious testicles. She very clearly had a vagina.

Just today, however, we noticed that our girl appears to have sprouted a pair of testicles.

We have noticed that she smells strongly like a male and appears to have a lot of the social tendencies of a male rat. Though she can be very active and curious, she also enjoys lazing in our laps or on our shoulders (for hours at a time) and she is not as adventurous as the other girls. She's not interested in exploring.

The picture included is one we've just taken of what looks clearly to us to be a vagina and testicles. It's not as clear in the picture so we increased the contrast. 

She also has nipples, which males do not have as far as I have heard.

The other notable thing is that while all of her brothers had very large testicles at six weeks, she is now about 9 or 10 weeks old and the testicles she has are still smaller than the ones her brothers had.

The main dilemma is that if she turns out to be an intact male, we cannot keep her, we have all females. But she does not appear to have a penis.

I'm sure there is somebody who is greater educated in rat anatomy and can give me some information based on the picture below.

Sorry if it's a bit graphic for some, but we're all rat-parents here. You've seen it! (well, half of it at least).


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## renay (May 30, 2007)

it almost looks red like its infected. Maybe you should bring her to a vet. I don't doubt that this does happen, but it just seems pretty odd.


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## Wench (Apr 5, 2007)

The red is the contrast. It's a very natural pink. We turned up the contrast to make it stand out more, to be seen better.


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## renay (May 30, 2007)

Okay. Well, I've never seen this in my life... I have no idea what to tell you, you could call a vet clinic and see what they have to say about the matter, just address your questions to them.. Since your rat is from a pet store, its probably a result of inbreeding...


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## rattikins (Jun 12, 2007)

I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that rarely they can "hide" their male genitals inside for a length of time while young. 

Anyone else hear that too? I can't remember where I read it...


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

It is certainly possible... we actually had a surgery at work a couple days ago on a "female" weimaraner. When we opened her up to spay her, there was only male anatomy. It happens. A vet visit would really be the best way to confirm it, though.


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## SamsterAndRocky (Jul 24, 2007)

let us now what the vet says.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Can you give a non contrasted pic please?


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## Wench (Apr 5, 2007)

Sure can, Poppy.

I can't afford to take her to the vet to ask if she has testicles. I can hardly afford to eat at the moment. I may take her in the future, but now it is really not an option. I can't risk taking her out of curiosity when I know I will not have the money to take her or any of the others if there is an emergency in the future because I wasted it taking her now. 

Here is the version without contrast and some other pics:


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## staarlight (Jun 11, 2007)

S/hes so cute!


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## ladylady (Apr 5, 2007)

Very cute 
Hopefully someone here can sex her/him.


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## MagicalLobster (Jun 30, 2007)

It's most deffinitely a girl because of how close the anus and the other object is. However, if the testicles keep growing, boo on me. :/


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## Hippy (Jul 23, 2007)

Your new rattie is adorable, and I have no idea! Google? Heh.. :[


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## RatCrazy (Jul 29, 2007)

I have heard of this happening but I have never actually seen it keep us posted this is truely intruiging


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## SamsterAndRocky (Jul 24, 2007)

name the kid chance...cuz its a cute name for either gender.... lol


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

I see a vagina! It's a girl >_> I think the extra bulge might just be a large vulva. Perhaps she is a hermie but I would doubt she would be fertile if she was.

But yeah that hole under the pee hole screams vulva to me. So she's definately a girl. I'm not sure about the bulge though and what that is. It's definately odd. At birth everyone starts out mostly female so to be female and have some male parts is just... odd.

But it happens. Mostly though, the testies aren't developed enough and too close to the body to produce working sperm. I would look for other opinions but my thoughts are she is fine and won't impregnate anyone.


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Looks female to me... I would get her checked to make sure it's not an infection and if she does have boy parts to get them removed, just in case. Hermaphrodites are rarely fertile, but stranger things have happened...


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## Wench (Apr 5, 2007)

Well, I would worry about her impregnating my girls if she did turn out to be fertile, Forensic, only that she does not seem to have developed a penis.

My fear now is that it may be an infection of some sort, because after going to the pet store and seeing some of the goolies on a boy there, it is very different. 

I think now is the point where I'd like to seek a professional opinion. I'm hoping maybe I can get a vet purely out of research interest.


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## toolie (Jun 20, 2007)

What a cutie.


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## thegrotto (May 11, 2007)

I hope it's both. That would be amazing.


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## deercreekrattery (May 14, 2007)

Are you sure she wasn't about to poop when you took those pics? Sometimes when females look bulgy down there, they are about to poop. Being so young, it may just look like she's growing something down there.  Definitely female though.


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## OnlyOno (Apr 4, 2007)

Forensic said:


> Hermaphrodites are rarely fertile, but stranger things have happened...


true! i saw a news article about a mule giving birth to a healthy baby boy, which is amazing because it's always been thought that mules (horse-donkey cross) were sterile, but apparently it's not the first time in history that it's happened. so the new thing is that maybe plenty of them are fertile we've just never given them the opportunity to breed.

good luck on your ratty, but honestly, like mentioned earlier, even if it does have testicles, it doesn't have a penis to deliver sperm, and the testicles are too close to the body to produce any sperm that are viable. i wouldn't worry about getting it neutered. i also don't think it's poop cuz the poop bulge is always lower than that on my girls, almost straight from the base of their tail.


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## popticle (Dec 19, 2006)

she is female. males testicals are much more obvious. trust me, keeping both! its possible that she needed a poo, or was in heat.


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