This article is from the WSSF 2011 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Gwen Lindsey, e-mail
QSomeone asked a question on a Yahoo group that she discovered one of her rats is pregnant. She provided a photograph and asked, “How pregnant is she?” Would you know of any informational/photo sites with a “spread” (no pun intended) of pregnancy pictures over time?

A Rats don’t show they are pregnant until they are around 2 weeks along—sometimes a couple days sooner, sometimes a couple days later, but basically not until they are almost ready to have them. So there wouldn’t be a way to show the pregnancy over time. We only have photos of obviously pregnant rats. Don’t know of another site with “day-by-day” ones since there really isn’t anything to show until the end. The best way to tell if a rat is pregnant up until they start to show is by weighing them www.afrma.org/pregrat.htm. So if you find a rat that looks pregnant, expect kids about a week later. Also, you can’t tell by how big she gets as to how many she will have.

A very pregnant Agouti rat. She had 14 babies the day after this photo was taken. Rat owned and bred by Karen Robbins.

This Silver Black Dalmatian rat looks huge but only had 9 babies the day after this photo was taken. Rat owned and bred by Karen Robbins.

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