My pregnant rat is hoarding food and items in her nesting box

Question
Why is my pet rat hoarding food and tissues and all types of things in her nesting box? She started to get a little aggressive, and is sticking her paws through the cage to grab my fingers and try to pull them in! hee hee its kind of cute... She's about a year old and the male is 11 months old. Should i feed her anything different while she's pregnant as well?

Answer
I'm assuming you did absolutely no research on the subject of breeding rats before you tossed the two together. That's a shame. There's a lot that can go wrong and unfortunately it can often end up with one (or both) of your rats injured as well as you. Please read AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!! in the coming days before your rat has her litter.

The pregnant female is hoarding because that is her instinct - to provide for her coming family. You need to remove the male immediately, otherwise directly after birth, she may end up killing him to protect her nest. He may also try to rebreed her, in which you'll wind up with another litter very quickly. Although that may sound like no big deal, it can potentially kill your mama rat if she's bred too often back to back.

You need to be sure to keep her food dish full at all times.. which means feeding her probably twice a day, depending on the size of your bowl. Make sure you have her on a good diet and healthy bedding.