# mabey pregnant?



## nicemove10 (Dec 11, 2007)

When I am away at college, I keep my female rat in the lab. I spend most of my time in the animal room working with her on my shoulder. A few weeks ago, someone brought in a small male rat. Recently, my female (about a year old) has not been herself. She is usually quite active and hyper. Lately she has been more calm and she is getting bigger and rounder in the lower abdomen region. I was concerned about megacolon but today I found out that someone went in the lab and let the male and female "play" together. The person that told me did not know when this happened but now I am not sure what to do or what signs to look for. HELP!!!


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

can you post pics of her?


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## Urithrand (Feb 12, 2008)

Females can do all sorts of things to let us know they are pregnant, but for one thing a noticable bulge around the belly forming very quickly is a good sign. How long ago was this "play" and do you remember if she was in heat at the time? Ratty mating is *extremely* quick and often very inconspicuous so it's certainly not something I would rule out.

A lot of females' behaviour will change when they become pregnant, some will become agressive and protective, while some will become very submissive and others still will just hide out of sight all the time in a darkened corner. The only sure-fire way to find out would be to visit your vet.

Also you can very VERY gently feel around her abdomen. If she's just putting on a few grams it will be soft and squishy fat tissue, but if she is pregnant it will be firmer, possibly with small lumps betraying the presence of little kittens.

If none of these things are apparent, you can wait and watch to see if she starts nesting. Many does will begin to madly build nests as their babies are close (the gestation period is only 3 weeks and a day or two). If she begins to do this, you might need to consider keeping her in some more suitable housing, examples of which are all over this forum. It wouldn't do to have her on your shoulder and start dropping kittens onto the lab desk!


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