# Pregnant rat not gaining weight



## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

I have a rat that's two weeks pregnant. She hasn't gained any weight since Saturday and I'm wondering if that's a sign that the litter died? I heard that their weight gain slowed down in the second week, but stopping completely for a few days seems abnormal. Is this anything to be worried about? Any information will be greatly appreciated.


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## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

On, she would have gotten pregnant on December 30th and she's due on January 21st


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## TeamRainut <3 (Jan 12, 2016)

I'd say there's a possibility maybe she's undereating because pregnant rats tend to need more food than normal,try upping her diet a bit if you can.There's a possibility you lost the litter but it may just as likely been a coincidence,all you can do is wait and see.


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## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

Okay, thanks. I'll let you know how things turn out.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

The first week is minimal gains but definite increases, the 2nd and 3rd week is when they really start to gain, until its 10 plus grams every 24 hours.There are sometimes stalls for a day or so where they seem to either not gain or even lose weight but 3 days of no weight gain going into her final week is not typical. My guess is that she will start to lose weight soon indicating reabsorption of the litter.


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## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

She still hasn't gained. I think that me moving her into the nursery cage might have been too stressful for her. That was right around the time she stopped gaining


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## Verucasdad (Aug 31, 2015)

I read in one of my rat books that sometimes females don't "show" until they are ready to give birth which is why some times there are accidental litters from new rats.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Msaddler said:


> She still hasn't gained. I think that me moving her into the nursery cage might have been too stressful for her. That was right around the time she stopped gaining


Very unlikely to have stressed her enough to have her reabsorb the litter...you have probably seen starved, sick, and crammed together rats in the feeder bins that manage to have no issues producing litter after litter even with all that stress. Her body wasn't able to support the pregnancy that is all.


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## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

She hasn't gained or lost any weight still. Does that mean that the litter will be stillborn? And I am fairly sure that she is/was pregnant.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I've had the odd rat where the weightgain has stalled in the second week, however if they've not gone on to loose the weight they useually go on to have a healthy but small litter. If they loose a fair amount of weight over a few days then they have started to reabsorb which useually means no babies will be born and she may need a course of antibiotics to makes sure theres no infection. If its stopped then its likely she's reabsorbed one uterine horns worth of babies (which gives you the small litter) as they have roughly half there babies in each horn.

It can also be underfeeding, whilst pregnant girls shouldn't have more food (you don't want them to put on none baby weight as it can cause birthing complications), they do need richer food to meet the increased requirements. And sometimes its possible to over compensate for that by feeding too little, or you might not feed enough of certain important nutrients like protein.

Moving to a birthing cage shouldn't cause reabsorption (though I tend to leave it until day 21 and move a friend in for the first 12 hours to help settle them), major moves (e,g, houses, new rats in the groups etc) can cause reabsorption.


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## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

She went from 11.7 oz to 12.8 oz total. She hasn't lost any weight at all and has just kep fluctuating from 12.6-12.8 oz. Is it possible she wasn't pregnant? Or does it mean she has an infection?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

If she's a younger rat that may just be natural growth. Is she acting well?


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## Msaddler (Jan 13, 2016)

As well as usual. There was significant weight gain after mating. Could that possibly be a coincidence? As for her age, I'm not sure. I got her from someone on Craigslist and they didn't specify her age. I think she might be close to a year.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

i had a very young girl someone gave to me as a boy, who was living with a boy. She ended up pregnant. She gained 100 grams over her pregnancy, had a stilborn baby, and a wee one that only lived 1.5 days. She was a big chubby girl after that. This also might be the start of her middle-aged spread.


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