# Suspected rat pregnancy



## 3NakedLadies (Jan 27, 2011)

I have just dropped my five beautiful girls off to a loving home, I was quite shocked when a young teenage boy answered the door, he looked about 13. He introduced me to his other 2 rats one of which I suspected to be pregnant, he got her from a pet store a week ago along with another rat, the pregnant rat looked about 5 months old and the other rat looked about 5 weeks old! Her nipples were really showing and she had a very big bump, apparently she has been making nests. the baby rat also had a bit of a bump but her nipples were not showing. I am quite worried for the young boy as he appeared to be autistic he lives with his grandma who I didn't get to meet, he was a lovely boy but had minimal rat knowledge and put one of my girls into his rat cage straight away! I tried to explain the introducing process as best I could without feeling like I was telling him how to look after his rats. Although I told him to move the pregnant female out of the cage so she doesn't get too stressed out. I'm very worried about the pregnant female as the cage she was in didn't have a food bowl and her house was too small for her to get in too. The cage was very clean so maybe the young boy forgot to put the food bowl back in? I noticed some rat food on the side. The cage is clean but empty with nothing in it other than a hamster igloo. I have given him a jenny rat cage with all the tunnels and big food bowl but I did not give him a hammock as my girls had destroyed it i figured he'd have that sorted. He is about 50 miles away from me so I can't just go over when ever, I am planning on going next week to make sure my girls are all happy. I gave him as much information as I could about caring for pregnant females and what to do after, but he said he will take the babies back to the pet shop, and then the whole cycle will start again! What can I do? Or more so what Should I do and not do? I don't want to intrude on this young boy who obviously loves rats and the company they give him but I am worried for the health of the female and her pups, i'd hate for them to go back to a pet shop! What would you do in this situation?


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