Rats and gender

Question
QUESTION: Our family recently bought a new rat from Incredible Pets and was told it was female. We definitely wanted to make sure it was female because we already own 2 recently new females at home that we had bought from PetCo. The rat that we bought from Incredible Pets was still pretty young but yesterday I picked "her" up and notice what looked like balls on "her" behind, that were definitely not there before. I've seen male rats before and I know what they look like but I've never owned one. Since we were told it was female I'm just a little confused, but the place that we bought it from did, I think, mix males and females in the same cage. We don't want to produce a litter but I'm still not sure if this rat is female or not(but I most defiantly think it is). Aren't you able to tell the gender soon enough after they are born? or do they need to be older to be certain if they are male or female? We just don't want to have a litter of rats soon soon.. any help?

ANSWER: Hi Alli,

I have some unsettling news which is a bit unnerving actually.

For starters, pet store employees, at least the majority of them, are not educated properly on rat care. If they were, they would not sell rats that were kept with the opposite sex. You can tell from birth the sex of both male and female. Also, keeping rats mixed together usually is what they do when they sell feeder rats because it doesn't matter if the rat is pregnant or not since, unfortunately, she is about to meet her fate sooner or later :-(

Rats are sexually active as young as 5 weeks old and in fact the male offspring, if not removed fast enough from the cage, can get his mother pregnant. Rats can become pregnant 24 hours after giving birth and go into heat every 5 days.
No wonder there are so many rats and mice in this world!!
That pet store is irresponsible for keeping the sexes mixed if they are being sold to the public as pets.

Anyhow, more bad news....male rats have an open inguinal canal. What does this mean? It means that they have the ability to draw their testicles up into their scrotum and tend to do this when the are scared, anxious, nervous etc...so they can easily hide their testicles when they are young.  What you need to do is NOT look for testicles totally but instead, notice the gap between the females urethra and anus are much smaller than the gap between the penis and anus of the male.

In fact, to make it easier for you, check out my website and scroll down a bit till you see the article and photos on how to sex your rat. It may help you a little better.

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/healthcare.htm

Also, with females, if they are indeed pregnant you have no way to know at first since they don't show  their pregnant form till about a week before they are born.

Anyhow I hope this helps...if you need more help please contact me with a follow up here.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so very much those pictures and your information did help!! I still have a few more questions though too. And yes the pet store where we got Pinky (the now male rat) are actually used for feeder rats also :(


um so at what age then is a rat ready to be sold? pinky was just a baby when we got him so he's fairly young. (Probably about 3 weeks old I'm guessing...) so are baby male rats testicles not visible yet then...or was he just hiding them because he was scared like you said?

And our other female rats are almost about 3 months old now, so is there even a chance of the little male rat impregnating our females? Before we figure out what to do.

And our female rat Flakes she often picks up Pinky with her mouth by the fur and moves him around is that normal?

thanks for all the help!



ANSWER: Hi Alli

Baby males about 3 weeks do have small testicles that are visible...more like bumps. I have a few more sites other than just my own that share even more pictures to help you decide.

If he is 3 or 4 weeks old, chances he did NOT get the girls pregnant are still high...your lucky....but he should be removed from females between 4.5 weeks and 5 weeks old. That is weaning age.  Selling him at 3 weeks is too young and not very fair to the baby rat because he still needs to nurse. If he is drinking and eating ok, that is one good thing, but see...they don't "care" if he was ok to be removed from his mother  at this age (the pet animal trade, that is) he was meant for snake food, sadly...so they didn't care about his health.  The female that is carrying him around is trying to "mother" him because he is very young. If you had put him with 3 month old males, he would have been attacked and killed. Older bucks tend to kill the young that is not part of their colony, although I have never seen bucks act that way and kill another rat, I have been taught it can and does happen though.  Thats sweet that Flakes picks him up and moves him.Does she sit with him guarding him? She has  taken on the role of being a surrogate mother to little pinkie.  That just melts me to think about!

Now, little Pinkie...lets say he truly is a "he"
I cant tell you what to do but if you do return him, he will be tossed right back in the feeder bin and he          may not be so lucky that he is chosen for a pet and instead  be sold to someone that wants him just for their pet snake.
You can take him out and put him by himself for the time being and you can have him neutered so he can live with the girls.  I mean, this of course is your own choice but just me giving my opinion as to what I would do if he turns out to indeed be a he.

Here are the URLs to a few other websites so you can compare again the other pictures of male and female baby rats.

http://www.ratz.co.uk/sexingrats.html

http://hometown.aol.com/RattLvrr/Sexingrats.htm

Do you have a  vet, by chance?

Sincerely

Sandy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sandy thank you again for all your help you have answered a lot of my questions and great info! And yes flakes and so does my other rat Toulee they both sit around Pinky seeming to protect him. :) It really is cute to know that Flakes is mothering him! And also he does eat perfectly fine, he eats his rat food and veggies, cereal, pretzels I've fed him.

Yeah we were thinking about returning him but that is not my choice. I most defiantly don't want him to be fed to snakes, but then again I don't know if we want to deal with the cost of neutering him or even dealing with baby rats and finding them homes. Even though I would love to experience having little baby rats around.

Um and yes we do have a vet for our dogs and cat but we've never taken a rat in....How much does it usually cost to neuter a rat?

Thanks,
 
Alli

Answer
You very much welcome, Alli.

You wont have to allow the little guy to live with the girls. I do not promote breeding of feeder rats at all anyhow so of course the last thing I would say is to let Pinkie stay with the ladies. You can always pop him in another cage. It wont hurt him to live alone if the only other choice is to be dinner for a snake. I know we cant save them all but already he is adjusting in to his new life with humans and..well I also understand you also worry he  may have to live with the girls but thats not true either.....he can live alone. You can buy a cage for him for just $30 and add hammocks and lots of fun things to keep him busy.
I do not in any way condone the breeding of any rats, esp feeder rats when their history is unknown and the breeding of lots of maladies could exist so I would not suggest you keep the little guy with the ladies and in fact would remove him asap. I may even have a cage that I can give you if you want. I have tons. Believe me!  I once rescued two female rats that the snake did not want to eat and much to my surprise not one but BOTH rats were pregnant. Needless to say I had lots of baby rats within 21 days of adopting the girls.
As for neutering  male rats, you need to have a vet that  treats  rats and is experienced with treating rats and doing surgery on them etc...
Prices for the surgery varies but it may run from
$90 to $150 . If you are an established patient and your lucky enough that the vet you see may be up  to par with
rats, you may even be able to make payments    .
So did you check him again? Is he for certain a male?
BTW, I do believe we only get a limited number of follow ups so please email at my private email address and also if you want the cage if he is a boy, let me know and I can go see in the shed what sizes I have. I know I have one that would fit 2 males nicely which means he would have plenty of room and it folds down easily for shipping . My gift to you.
My email is Sandyscrittercity@yahoo.com
Let me know

Sandy