# In heat?



## elliotulysses (Feb 8, 2015)

My baby girl, Love, has a bigger tummy and some visible nipples. I would say she's pregnant, but she's never been around a male except when she was a baby and that was far too long ago to have impregnated her. The girls can't get out and the one time a boy got out, he just sort of climbed his cage then the girls closed cage. It wouldn't be possible to copulate through the bars, would it? The girls are in a Kaytee rat enclosure, which has very narrow spacing through the bars.
Another reason I would say she isn't pregnant is she's urine marking us and her female area looks like she's in heat. I'll post a picture of her stomach for assessment.


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## elliotulysses (Feb 8, 2015)

Picture


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## elliotulysses (Feb 8, 2015)

She does eat a lot of treats that she steals her mom's

She's also been humping her mom and is non-stop playing with us. My vote is it's her heat cycle, as looking up a lot of symptoms it would say so. Also some rats just have more visible nipples? Her belly is all white so it makes everything "pop"


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Rats cannot mate through cage bars, so I think she's probably fine. Nipples do show more on white bellies and she may be reaching an age where she's just filling out in the midsection more.


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## elliotulysses (Feb 8, 2015)

Thanks! I actually just read that mating through cage bars is a myth. Could it be possible she got more of her dad's chubby physique instead of her mother's sleek/slim one?


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

I think it's rather rare, but rats do come in all shapes and sizes. I had one girl that was bigger and chubbier than most of my current boys....she had the attitude to back it up too lol


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