Remember Alita?

She was that poor massively preggie rat I took out of a pet store a number of months back. Well I was cleaning rat enclosures today and took a few shots of a now healthy and very preggie Alita. This will be her second litter by Casanova (the other one was 16 perfectly healthy pinks).

Alita having a bit of a waddle around.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...itaPreggie.jpg

Belly shot...just for Cue! LOL
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...AlitaBelly.jpg

Hey let me back in! I want some food, a drink and a nap!
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...etMeBackIn.jpg

Awwww, poor girl! I remember that all too well....ugh, I feel so bad for her! lol! She's a really pretty girl...I wish my rats were that nice. My breeding trio is super skittish, and I feel bad because I used to have pet rats and would like to have them out with me sometimes. :(

Be sure to post pinkie pics when they arrive! Judging by her looks, it shouldn't be too long now. :)

Awwwww....what a cute little tummy! That's one blessed rat to have found her way into the Frankykeno household! :yes:

Oh, how sweet. I'm currently trying to talk the hubby into a pair of rats myself, and I would love to have one that looks like that. :clap:

Isn't she the one that bled a lot after delivering, or am I confused again. :rolleyes:

Yep she was Christie. I've never had a female before or since have that kind of delivery. I seriously thought she would either bleed out or I'd have to put her down to end it. Thank goodness rats are extremely hardy creatures and she's bounced back with lots of rest and tons of good food. Thanks to Becky and Jeanne who were great sources of info when poor Alita delivered that day and I was in a bit of a panic.

This is one of Alita's offspring from her first litter with us (the father was Nova the Black Hooded). I think this one is a quite nice example of a black and white husky. Just remember there is a slight chance that Husky marked rats can carry the megacolon gene so don't breed them to high white rats or blue rats.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...yFeederRat.jpg

She looks great!! I think my biggest girl will be ready to go soon...

Oh excellent Jamie! Which one is she and who have you decided to mate her to?

Jen when mine are actually in the breeding cage they are pretty skittish too. I actually got bit by Midnite the other day when she was ummmmm "busy being entertained" by Nova lol. Once they are seperated they seem much more friendly and if all else fails, try my secret your rat will love you treat. Old bread ripped into cubes dipped in a tiny bit of olive oil. They cannot resist it and it makes their coats shine and soften like a baby rat. :)

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Oh excellent Jamie! Which one is she and who have you decided to mate her to?

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The black hooded girl and the choices are the tan hooded or the albino. I am not sure though...

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Originally Posted by jglass38

The black hooded girl and the choices are the tan hooded or the albino. I am not sure though...

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Well normally I get an almost 50/50 split of black or beige hoodeds when I cross Nova with HoneyChild (he's the Black Hooded, she's the Beige Hooded). When I crossed Nova with an albino female I got mostly Black Hooded with some Albino pups.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Well normally I get an almost 50/50 split of black or beige hoodeds when I cross Nova with HoneyChild (he's the Black Hooded, she's the Beige Hooded). When I crossed Nova with an albino female I got mostly Black Hooded with some Albino pups.

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I think ill go black hooded to beige hooded...both the males are umm..rather well endowed..

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Old bread ripped into cubes dipped in a tiny bit of olive oil. They cannot resist it and it makes their coats shine and soften like a baby rat. :)

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Exchange for fresh bread, a glass of wine....mmmm...yum..

Oh right, rats! Ratties! Thinking about ratties....yes.

Amazing what three more days will do. I don't know if these pictures can convey just how massively preggo Alita is. She was like this with the last big litter of 16 so hopefully today or tomorrow she'll deliver this crew. Poor thing can barely waddle around, her legs aren't long enough to clear the belly. She's built the nest though and seems settled in it. Just had to share these as she gets so big it completely amazes me!

Build it and they will come....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...itaNesting.jpg

Baby got back....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...tarelaxing.jpg

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ahugebelly.jpg

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ahugebelly.jpg

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:8: :rofl: Ohmygosh! Tooo funny! The poor dear must be miserable!

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Originally Posted by jglass38

I think ill go black hooded to beige hooded...both the males are umm..rather well endowed..

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LMAO...yep Jamie that's what you want in the male to be "blessed" that way!

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Originally Posted by JLC

:8: :rofl: Ohmygosh! Tooo funny! The poor dear must be miserable!

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Thank goodness she's a really nice tempered female Judy since she's the biggest female in body size that we have. She could give a bone deep bite if she wanted, so I'm glad she doesn't. Even this preggie Alita's a sweet natured rat and has turned into a top breeder for us after her rather rough beginnings.

Just to finish up this thread. Alita with little muss or fuss produced a litter of 18 this afternoon. We just had a look over each pink and all look well and are already showing milkbands. A couple are runty so she may cull them but all in all a nice big healthy litter.


http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Litterof18.jpg

Awwwww...what a good mommy! Give her a bite of bread-n-oil...on me! :carouse:

Thanks all! She's got that blissful rat mommie face going on lol. She'll get her extras in a day or so, right now she'll not want much due to ummm "tidying up" the birthing process (trying to not gross anyone out who snacks at the computer lol).

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Thanks all! She's got that blissful rat mommie face going on lol. She'll get her extras in a day or so, right now she'll not want much due to ummm "tidying up" the birthing process (trying to not gross anyone out who snacks at the computer lol).

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LOL! True....I'm not much in the mood for "treats" after I deliver, either. :P

Heck I was munching on a sandwich 20 minutes after Mikey popped out LOL. (errrr popped being a relative term)

18; wow, she would be a keeper in my colony, for sure! Cong-"rats" :)

Yep she sure is a keeper Gin and I've reserved one of her daughters from the previous nice litter of 16 as a future breeder.


Jet and HC
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...s/HCandJet.jpg

The black on the right is Jet, from Alita x Casanova. She's almost completely jet black except a tiny white mark are her lower belly. The rat on the left is HoneyChild one of our top females who will be retiring after her next litter (HC consistently births 15 young and they are always big for age). For now she hangs out with Jet and Smudge while they are growing up.

Jet's belly marking
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...lishFemale.jpg

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Heck I was munching on a sandwich 20 minutes after Mikey popped out LOL. (errrr popped being a relative term)

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Lucky! :P I had to hang out in the recovery room for 4 hours, then my husband was passed out in the chair in our room (22 hours of labor + c-section) so he couldn't go get me Arby's like I wanted...I had to eat nasty Army hospital food. :sigh2:

Glad Alita finally had her babies...I felt her pain all too non-fondly. She looks like she's doing well and is happy...for having 18 kids! lol!

Still nothing from my rats...but my mama mouse is doing well and her sister should have hers by the end of this week. :)

All 18 are doing very well today. Had a bit of a scare this morning as I'd left a window open near the rats and it's gotten sudden a lot cooler. Lita went to grab food and completely buried the litter, probably to keep them warm. With a litter that large though the ones on the bottom of the pile and under all that bedding might not have made it. I dug them out and closed the window and they are fine. Stupid mistake I should have remembered that window with new pinks in the colony and the sudden weather change. :(

Are your rats preggie yet Jen or still in the process of breeding?

I honestly have no idea. I haven't seen one bit of breeding activitity in the past month, neither during the day or at night. The females sleep together in one hide and the male sleeps in another. Either they don't like him or he has no interest, I'm not sure. I feed them the mix Becky recommends, they get water with a tad of vanilla in it, and they're in a 40g breeder tank.

Maybe they're too small/young? The male weighs 230g and is about 8 inches long (w/out tail), and the females are about 1/2 an inch bigger and weigh a bit over 260g each.

:confused:

They should be big enough. Heck they are sexually mature around 5 or 6 weeks old (though females are too young then to be very successful mothers). Usually a female of 250 grams is good to go for a nice big first litter. You know Jen I had to go through 3 males to get a good stud rat. You might want to pull that male...get a new one and try it out with those females for at least 15 days (so you hit a few heat cycles). Then the two males could just be cage buddies when the girls are busy birthing and nursing. Our first male wasn't fertile, our second was but was slashing the females to pieces, the third was perfect and fathered hundreds of babies for us. He's just now been retired and is Stud Emeritus around here LOL.

I thought about pulling him and getting a new one, I think there's something off about him.

Here's a question: There is a very large Siamese male at PetCo that has been all by himself for 2 months now. No one wants to buy him because he's either too big to be food for anything (I doubt any boa owners around here go there for food) and people must not like how he looks. I thought about getting him as a stud rat...half because I need a new male since the gray one isn't doing it...but half because I feel really bad for him that he doesn't have a good home with someone to give him attention and rattie treats. Think he could work out? Are there any genetic things I would need to know about Siamese rats? My 2 females are black hoodeds, are they safe to pair with him?

As far as I know there are no associated issues with Siamese but I included a link for you on rat genetics from the AFRMA. I got my Siamese from an Albino x Black Hooded pairing but I've yet to breed her since she's too small yet so no hands on data to pass on to you that way.

http://www.afrma.org/ratgenpart1.htm

That big Siamese male might do fine though he may he an older fella...hard to say as my Black Hooded male got very big very fast (and big not fat...he's just a big fella lol). Just make sure he looks fit not aged and not fat and isn't mean natured. I would pull that young male...completely clean the enclosure and replace all the bedding to remove his smell then add the big new male and make sure they are all getting along and he's not mean to the females. Later on when they are preggie he and the young male can be cage buddies...most males get along well with other males...though not all.

You can leave the male in and just pull him when the females show the pear shape of pregnancy. He can't breed them once they are preggie anyways as they develop a vaginal plug to prevent this. Here's a great site on rats. It's for fancy pets but has some invaluable info and great sexing photo's. Really a good site for beginning rat breeders as it covers all the basics and discusses things like temperment of stud rats and so forth.

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