# My Five Week Old Rat Was Pregnant!



## FallDeere (Sep 29, 2011)

Yes, you read the title correctly. A rat I adopted at the age of exactly five weeks was pregnant.

Date of birth: November 11[SUP]th[/SUP], 2016
Date of adoption by me: December 16[SUP]th[/SUP], 2016 (exactly five weeks old)
Date she gave birth: January 2[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2017

Counting back, she must have been only four weeks and three days old when she became pregnant.

Some back story:
Her parents were rescue rats themselves. Her mother was already pregnant when taken in (by someone other than myself). The rat in question, Ollie, was kept with her brothers until five weeks of age, when I adopted her and her sister. About a week into having her, I noticed she was gaining weight at a far faster pace than her sister. What started as a ten gram difference between the two became a fifty gram difference very quickly (I weighed them every day).

My dad laughingly suggested maybe she was pregnant. It wasn’t possible, based on everything I’d read… so I pursued other options, such as megacolon. But nope, she was too healthy for that or anything else that would cause weight gain and bloating. So I prepared for babies.

She gave birth to nine healthy babies on January 2[SUP]nd[/SUP].

I am posting this to help anyone who thinks their young rat may be pregnant. When I searched “pregnant five week old rat” very little information came up. Mainly false alarms, people thinking their young rat was pregnant when it actually was something else. I only found two cases of rats suspected of being only five weeks old when they became pregnant, and those couldn’t provide the exact birthdate of the rat in question. I on the other hand have the date of birth of this rat, so we know exactly how old she was when she became pregnant.

Thankfully, so far, things are going well. No stillborns or serious birth injuries and she is feeding and caring for them just fine. I don’t know if I will keep this thread updated on them or not. I really just want this info to be out there.

Below is the weight in grams of Ollie and her sister from the day I got them to the day I am writing this. I did not weigh Ollie after she gave birth that day because I didn’t want to stress her.

Date / Sister’s weight / Ollie’s weight

12/16/2016
129g
138g
12/17/2016
138g
145g
12/18/2016
141g
143g
12/19/2016
145g
154g
12/20/2016
147g
164g
12/21/2016
153g
174g
12/22/2016
158g
182g
12/23/2016
165g
190g
12/24/2016
170g
198g
12/25/2016
173g
205g
12/26/2016
173g
212g
12/27/2016
180g
211g
12/28/2016
185g
222g
12/29/2016
192g
249g
12/30/2016
197g
267g
12/31/2016
198g
275g
1/1/2017
206g
292g
1/2/2017
209g
gave birth
1/3/2017
209g
233g

 
I don’t want anyone worrying about the babies’ wellbeing. They are well cared for and have a permanent home with me. I likely will not attempt to rehome any of them, as I do have enough cage space for this many rats.


----------



## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

My first thought is that people make mistakes. You got the birthdate from another person, and they could have easily been mistaken. I have seen that happen a million times.

But even if it is true and she got pregnant under 5 weeks old, I don't want that to freak people out. 

It would be nearly impossibly rare but yes not impossible. Myself and most other breeders I know do not even separate their babies until 5 weeks old. I've never had an oops from it. Females are usually not able to get pregnant until after 5 weeks old.

And in cases when a young rat does become pregnant it is almost 99% of the time not by her brothers but by an older male. Baby boys are by far not ready to get the job done lol Most do not even show any interest until far far older then 5 weeks old. I've never had a baby boy interested that young in girls.

As i said insanely nearly impossible rare. But nature is weird, and sometimes stuff like that happens. Just like how most human girls hit puberty at 12 but crazily weird sometimes a girl will get it at like 8!


But I would never ever suggest letting a mom so young go through with her pregnancy  Its too late now ofcourse. But for others reading please have the pregnancy terminated, it is not healthy for the baby or her babies to be born this young. 

I hope all goes well with your litter. 

Some helpful links for the babies development & sexing:
http://www.afrma.org/babyratdevdaily.htm
http://tigertailrattery.weebly.com/growth-picture-journal.html
http://ratguide.com/breeding/baby_development/birth_to_weaning.php
http://mainelyratrescue.org/rattieblog2/?p=42
my pages:
http://www.onceuponamischief.com/sexing
http://www.onceuponamischief.com/baby-development


----------



## FallDeere (Sep 29, 2011)

The person I got her from new the exact time of day, so I do highly doubt the birthdate was wrong. The mother was spayed so the owner kept the father in with the litter until they were weaned. She didn't say what age they were separated from the father, though, so I suspect he fathered this litter as well.

I definitely didn't want to make this post to scare people. That wasn't my intent. I just want the next person searching to find if it is possible for their five week old rat to be pregnant to be able to find a confirmed case of it, so they can be prepared.

By the time I realized for certain she was pregnant, it was far too late to do anything about it. Luckily things are going smoothly. I definitely did NOT want her to have to go through this at this age. Perhaps this information can help others realize their young rat is pregnant early on so they can catch it before it's too late.

I've actually already been looking at your pages for info! It is very helpful. 

It is lucky, though, I've researched the heck out of raising litters before this. So despite the fact that I'd never had a litter before, I was very well prepared. And I've had some friends with experience with litters helping me with anything I wasn't sure of. These babies are in good hands.


----------



## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

> The person I got her from new the exact time of day, so I do highly doubt the birthdate was wrong. The mother was spayed so the owner kept the father in with the litter until they were weaned. She didn't say what age they were separated from the father, though, so I suspect he fathered this litter as well.


lol I just have zero trust of people. I hear insane stories all the time and people just lie alot. Even when it makes zero sense to lie about it lol. But when was the mother spayed? That is weird that they would have her spayed while she was nursing? Unless it was an emergency birth and was done then?

But yeah it was really stupid of them to keep the dad with them (don't ever do that people for any reason) so he likely was the one. As i said it is nearly impossible for her brothers but older males will indeed. 


It is nice to share the info for others to be helped. It is just a hot topic issue for me, far far far too many people use it as an excuse to remove babies from their moms way too young of an age. It is so important to keep babies with mom for as long as possible and it kills me to see them rip them away so young. And they always quote stories like this. I just want to make sure people know that it is so rare that it is not something to even really worry about, though yeah don't keep adult males around!

Im glad all is going well! It is so hard on young moms


----------



## FallDeere (Sep 29, 2011)

I have no idea when she was spayed or why the owner thought it was a good idea to spay the female while she was nursing rather than neuter the male... The owner is clearly new to rats in general. I think she didn't want the male to be alone (those were her only rats). I don't know the full story and I don't plan to ask, but a lot of strange things were done. I don't really want to talk badly of her behind her back, though. I think she did what she thought was best, even if she didn't have the knowledge to know what was really best for everyone.

I 100% agree she shouldn't have kept the male in with momma and babies and he had to have been the one to father this litter as well. I don't know why people insist and letting rats besides the momma rat be with babies. >.< It's an unnecessary risk to the babies' well being.

I haven't been able to do a real check on them yet today, but the babies still seem fine.


----------



## Luz (Nov 19, 2020)

Hello!! I know I'm a bit late on the discussion but...
I got 2 baby rats, two females, but time passed and one female turned out to be male.
I think they are already 5 weeks so she might be pregnant already!! I don't mind having a litter as I have enough space for them and have home for them, but I would like to ask if it is dangerous for the female to get pregnant this early


----------



## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Luz said:


> I would like to ask if it is dangerous for the female to get pregnant this early


It is potentially unhealthy for such a young rat to get pregnant. If they haven't already been separated, do so immediately (_like today_).

You will want to make a plan just in case your female is already pregnant. If she does not give birth within the next three weeks, you will need to figure out what to do with your two separate rats. You could neuter/spay one or both of them so they can live together again or you will have to find same-sex cagemates to live with them so they're not alone. Another option is to keep one of them (getting them a same-sex cagemate or two) and finding a new home for the other one.


----------



## RatCrazyGirl (Feb 7, 2021)

lol my 5 week old is also about to give birth.


----------

