About Robin Bartlett Expertise I can answer any rat-related questions including feeding, housing, breeding, showing, genetics, health, and behaviour. I am a veterinary assistant and though I cannot answer in-depth health questions I am familiar with the most common ailments and treatments for rats. I have owned rats for 10 years and have been breeding them for 5 and have studied everything about them that I can get my hands on. I currently run my own rat care website at http://careguide.evergreenrattery.com and have been answering rat and other rodent questions via email and IM for several years now.
Experience I am a veterinary assistant who has owned rats for 10 years and bred them for 5. In this time I have learned nearly everything there is to know about rats and continue to study more about them every day. I have been answering rat questions via IM and email for several years now and I am currently ranked #3 on Yahoo! Answers for the best answers in the rodents category.
Organizations RatsPacNW, RMFE
Education/Credentials Though I am a veterinary assistant, I have not gone to college for it. My parents are both vets, and I have grown up with our family business and have learned what I needed to know on the job.
Question QUESTION: I'm going to breed my blue capped rat in a month. She is about 6 or 7 months old and she is very hyper and playful. I know her temperment will change during her pregnancy and caring for young, but when its all over will she go back to being playful and hyper? I'm just wondering how breeding her might change her personality. Also, how likely is it for rats to die while giving birth. I like my rat a lot and wouldn't want anything to happen to her.
ANSWER: Many rats don't change their personalities much when they are pregnant, and usually if they do they will change back around the time the babies are all weaned. It's much more rare that they will change permanently, but it can happen.
Many rats give birth fine, but there's always the chance of complications. Babies can become stuck and if she gives birth in the middle of the night you may not be able to help her until it is too late. Sometimes they retain stillborn babies which rot inside the uterus and cause infection which can lead to death. The uterus can also tear and be infected, or fill with pus in a condition called pyometra. Mastitis (infection of the mammary glands) can also occur. In my 5 years of breeding I've only ever had a problem twice, once everything was fine and the other time the mother died though the babies were all right.
I do have to point out, though, that unless you know the background of your rat, including genetics, health, and variety information at least 3-4 generations back, you probably shouldn't be breeding her. Many rats from pet stores are inbred, pretty and nice as they may be, and they can pass on unwanted health problems into the rat gene pool. Responsible breeders have to work years to reverse the damage done by laboratories who breed the rats to have MORE cancerous tumors for research, and often breeding a rat who you don't know the background of can negatively impact the work they are doing.
If you want to breed her just the once, for fun, it's probably not worth the risk to her. If you are wanting to become a rat breeder it's very important to do as much research as you can, including genetics, and buy your breeding rats from good stock.
If you have any other questions please let me know!
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QUESTION: thank you so much for all your help! My rat is from a breeder, and the male she is going to be breeding with is owned by an experienced breeder. He wanted to breed his rat with mine, and he is going to be helping me through the entire process.
My other question, is whether i should put her in a seperate cage during pregnancy. She is currently kept in a four level cage with one other female rat. They have been living together for a long time and her cagemate is very sweet. Should i seperate them, or is it ok for the other rat to eventually meet the babies (maybe a few days after their born)? And would climbing around in a multilevel cage while she's pregnant hurt the babies inside?
Answer Great, I'm glad to hear that =) Sorry if I offended you at all but I've unfortunately had way too many people breeding when they really shouldn't be, without being responsible, and they've made me a bit cynical in that aspect. So it's good to hear of someone being responsible!
I personally separate my own female rats when they are pregnant, for several reasons. One, most of my cages have bar spacing that is too wide for a pregnant rat. I have a nursing cage which is way too small to be lived in normally but for a rat with babies younger than 2-4 weeks it works out fine. Two, the mother rat may be aggressive or protective of her babies, and she may fight with another rat who comes to investigate. Three, the other rat may try to harm the babies (not very likely, though), or may attempt to care for them herself even though she can't nurse them. This can result in a tug of war between two females and the baby, which can get hurt in the process. The mother may even allow the other female to take some of her babies who will then die of starvation when the other female can't nurse them.
In the wild, mother rats all give birth together and all help each other with their litters and take turns nursing, but in a pet environment I don't think it is necessary and has too many risks. I have successfully done this before, though, but at the moment I believe it is safer to separate them. You can try whatever you want, and can always separate them later (by moving the other female, not the mother) if there are problems. It probably would be a good idea to remove the other female for the birth, at least, as that can be stressful and the mother usually just wants to be left alone.
Climbing around while pregnant is usually fine, but it depends on how high your cage is. Rats can get off-balance with a big pregnant belly and they are more likely to fall or slip. Falling even a foot can harm the babies or the mother if she lands funny. It's probably better to be safe than sorry here; though you don't really need to worry about it until the last week of pregnancy, before that they aren't very big. I tend to move my females to their nursing cage when they are about 2 weeks into their pregnancy so they have one week to settle into their new cage and build a nest before giving birth, plus it is a one level cage so they won't be able to get hurt.
