Thursday, March 15, 2007

Big Rat News

I bought a female companion for my other female rat about three weeks ago. They had been getting along very well until this past week when the new rat became very aggressive. Our friends Becca and Daniel were over on Saturday and I was showing them Mr. Willingham and the girls. Loren bit me for no reason, really bad, which is extremely unusual for a rat. Last night, she attacked again. I picked her up to inspect her and realized that she was extremely pregnant! It virtually happened over night. Apparently she was pregnant when I bought her at the pet store (which is a good lesson on why you should not buy female feeder rats I guess). She gave birth today and she has a lot of pups. However, I don't know how many because every time I try to look she lunges at me and I don't want to press the issue. I'm a rat mom! It was funny because I told Erik last night and he was like, "Oh my God, what are we going to do?" I said, "It's the rat that's pregnant, not me." After that, he was okay. I don't know how I am going to find homes for them, but I have to admit that I am excited. There is an incredible energy of new life in the house, and I have six weeks to enjoy it!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

well congratulations Danielle on the little ones :-) I have a paper for you to edit early tomorrow evening ;-)

Danielle Brunin said...

Thanks Darin! She had 11 pups. What I am going to do with 11 ratpups I have no idea (assuming that many survive). E-mail me your paper or bring it over and I'll look over it for you.

Blessum Yellowstone Trip said...

Hmm... six weeks? They will wean at 21 days. You should separate the males and females pretty soon after that just to be sure that they don't get pregnant. The mom usually wants to commit suicide to get away from teh pups by the end of that time anyway... :) You could always sell some back to the petstore... but then they might be feeder rats...