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Rat questions

21 15:46:14

Question
QUESTION: Hi my name is teresa and I have two rat questions for you.  I recently got four rats from two different pet stores. 1st question: is it possiable to have a mix litter of different types of babies.  The pet shop told me that my rat curly sue's (who's rex and dumbo eared) sister's and brother's were all differn't colors like blue russian,black, dumbo eared, hairless,ect, If that is possible does that mean that my little girl carries those same gene's?  My other question is that I have two females and one male in the same cage that get a long great no fighting but I'm a little concerned with the fact that none of them are really active is this a sign of illness.  They don't have any discharge or wheezing or sneezing.  Could it be their laid back personality?  It's really hard for me to tell because they have only been with me for a week and I'm sure that the two females a pregnant because they were together when I got them out of the pet shop.  Any suggestions on what this could be? Or how I can take care of them better?
ANSWER: You need to remove the male ASAP. Once these girls give birth, they will get pregant again right away which is really bad for them to be pregnant while trying to raise a litter. The females will each need their own birthing tank. You need to get ready because the babies could come any day now. You need to find a vet incase there are problems. You will need a cage for the male, a cage for each female and more cages to split the babies into.You know if both females are pregnant you could end up with 40+ babies dont you!! Go to www.fancy-rats.co.uk for more advise. Sorry to be rude but it sounds like you have bitten off more than you can chew and you must have wanted them to get pregnant or you wouldnt continue to house the male with them!!

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QUESTION: thank you for answering my question so soon.  As a matter of fact I left them housed together mainly because that's how they were at the pet shop that I got them at and I figured that the possabilty of them being pregnant was quite high.  The reason why I left them together when I brought them home was to reduce stress.  These rats wern't as tamed as I liked them to be usually and I didn't want them to be more stressed than they had to be.  Yes, I prepared for the babies.  I know that I could have as many as fourty babies but possibly less too.  I have a wonderful familiy that's ready to help.  I also have people that would take the babies without them being feeder rats.  I do have to admit I might have gotten a little more than I have expected and that is the reason why I'm asking questions and reading up on breeding as much as I can.  If you have any other sources that would help me I'm all ears and eyes.  I have had rats prior to this but none of them pregnant. I have bred hamster before, but from what I've read so far it's a bit different. Well once again thank you for your reply and any other helpful advice is always accepted.

Answer
Have you removed the male yet? Fingers crossed that the girls arent pregnant but they probably are. Have you joined the fancy rats forum? There's a lot of breeders and information about breeding and what to feed the does and young on there, they really do give the best advice, they are very clued up about rats! Really hope that everything works out ok for you! Good luck