pregnant baby?

[mlededee]

this is a female from my first litter. she was kept (along with the rest of the litter) with her mom until just over 4 weeks old. at that time i separated all the babies, boys from girls and put them in separate tubs from their mom. she is now 6 weeks old. i found her looking like this tonight when i was cleaning cages. is it possible that she is pregnant? this is how my adult females look right before they give birth, except obviously they are much larger. i feel horrible--i thought that as long as they were with their mother they wouldn't mate--and she is just a tiny baby. i rechecked all the other babies that are in the enclosure with her to make sure i hadn't accidentally put a male in with them but they are all females. should i euthanize her?

[Wild Bill]

She defintely looks prego!! See if she gives birth, I wouldnt kill her.

[mlededee]

i feel so horrible though because she is SO small and SO young. what can i do to avoid this in the future or is this just kind of a fluke thing? if she does give birth, should i have one of my adult females foster the babies? i can't imagine she could handle nursing a litter and stay healthy...

[Wild Bill]

Only thing you can do is try to get them out as soon as they start eating on their own. I have heard some people being able to wean babies as soon as 3 weeks. Other than that there isnt much you can do. Males at 4 weeks usually dont figure "it" out by then.

[SatanicIntention]

No hun, that is megacolon. Euthanize her and do not breed either parents again as they are now carriers. She has late-onset megacolon, and while not as serious, will still cause stunting and a very short life span.

This is definitely not a pregnancy, and babies that are 4 weeks old when separated are NOT going to be pregnant. Do you notice how thin her tail is? Is she smaller than her same-age litter mates?

Megacolon is not something to toy with as it does cause death more often than not. Once that baby rat is eating solid foods(2-3 weeks of age), the megacolon becomes obvious. Sometimes it doesn't raise its ugly head until the baby rat is completely weaned(as seen in this case). It takes awhile for the feces to back up and for the bloating to begin. It is quite painful(imagine immense stomach cramps that can't go away) and it will be best to put the baby out of her misery as soon as you can.

Here is a link to megacolon info and pictures of babies and young adults with early and late onset megacolon: http://ratguide.com/health/digestive/megacolon.php

And please, do not breed either of the parents, or any of the siblings, as they carry the gene for megacolon. Never feed off a megacolon baby as they aren't absorbing the proper nutrients and will not be a healthy meal for a snake.

[mlededee]

oye. yes she is a little smaller than her littermates, not a great deal, but it is noticeable. i know who her mother was but i kept 2 males in with the females so i don't know who the father was. so this means i shouldn't breed either male again, except that i already have 2 more litters (by different females) that they fathered. the first litter is 2 weeks old, the second just under 2 weeks. so, since i don't know which male is the carrier, and both have been with all of the females, does this mean that all of my females are now possible carriers as are all of their babies?

[Wild Bill]

Here is a link to megacolon info and pictures of babies and young adults with early and late onset megacolon: http://ratguide.com/health/digestive/megacolon.php

WOW!! Thanks for that info Becky!! Thanks for the link to the rat health page!! Thats why I love these forums!! Sorry for the news mlededee!!

Bill

[Jeanne]

My answer to this one is mega colon also. If I remember right, mega colon shows up in "blaze" genes quite often. But I cant remember the specifics on if it is paired with another gene or what. I never worked with the "blazes" so I am not totally sure much else. But I am sure you will find it if you look around the net. If you look at that female, she has the charicteristic "blaze" mark, that white on her forehead. Maybe the father who carries this gene has a "blaze" and the other dont? Hmm, hopefully you can identify which male it is. Any babies made by the offending father/mother will carry that gene, and could produce babies of thier own who have problems with mega colon. They are always carriers for that gene, but some never are effected by it physically. Eliminate the rats that are the gene carriers from your breeding and you will do fine.

[frankykeno]

Thanks for all the information Becky and Jeanne. That plus the link will be very helpful to me as well. I've actually started using my Degei snake husbandry program to keep track of my rat breeding (couldn't find a darn thing online for rats except stuff meant for pedigree fancy rat breeders).

I did a bit of research into Mega-Colon when I used to have a "husky" marked rat as they are on the list of likely to carry the genetics for it (thanks Becky for that heads up back then).

So sorry this has happened Em. I hope you are able to figure out which pairings will result in this and adjust your breeding plans accordingly.


~~Jo~~

[SatanicIntention]

Emily, yes, it would be best for them to just feed them off or euthanize them and never use any of them for breeding again.

Megacolon usually pops up in wedge-blazed husky marked rats(high white), mostly blue colors like American blue and the lighter blues. It's weird that it happened in a split-capped black baby(yours), but that's how the genes roll sometimes. A friend of mine had a very late-onset male rat that didn't show signs for quite awhile, except that he was smaller and wouldn't grow.

If any of the 2 week old babies start showing signs of MC, euthanize tham and don't use them for feeding. They would start showing signs after they are starting to eat solid food, but are still nursing(early onset and deadly) . They can also start showing signs after they are weaned and a few weeks after(late onset and shortened life span if different diet is used).

I'm sorry you're having to get rid of so many rats, but since every professional (pet) rat breeder is trying to keep that out of their lines, it's very important to never breed any rat that could be a carrier.