A Curious Case of a Fatherless Rat Litter
The discovery of an impossible rat litter that truly shook me and my subsequent on going research into explanations for this seemingly immaculate ratty conception.
Image yourself being an experienced rat breeder, a biomedical science university student and mum of three (all too familiar with "the birds and the bee's"!) and finding what should be a physically impossible litter. Now, I have had two "surprise" litters until this one but have apparently miss-used the word "surprise" in place of "unplanned". But it was not until Wednesday 9th October 2019 when I made the discovery of the mystery litter. I saw the babies and I instantly felt sick, my stomach fell out my arse. Impossible. I had no words besides "whhaaatttt!?!??!" and "it's just not possible!!!??" This litter has had me shook since. So, I've taken to the keyboard and I'm writing about it. I will document exactly what I did, when I did it, with photo's and try to find an explanation for it all.
Firstly; the timeline is one of the most important factors in this situation. It will take me a while to document this as I have to go at least 8 weeks back; the last time mother was with a male.
***this article is still under construction as i retrace my steps and gather as much evidence of said steps as possible***
Firstly; the timeline is one of the most important factors in this situation. It will take me a while to document this as I have to go at least 8 weeks back; the last time mother was with a male.
***this article is still under construction as i retrace my steps and gather as much evidence of said steps as possible***
The Timeline of Events
August 9th 2019
- Mum & other female placed with two males in mating cage (medium hamster cages to prevent fighting).
- This was an unusual change from my normal routine. This only normal occurs for 4 days to ensure pregnancy. However, due a holiday and being in the care of someone else these rats all stayed together until....
August 27th 2019
- I returned from holiday, rats are back in my care.
- Males removed from mating cages. Unusually females remained in this cage. Females obviously pregnant and made nests so due to close time of birth and a first time mum, rats remain in the breeding cage after a quick tidy up.
- Males are placed back into large DIY cage along with others. I can specifically remember this as there was lots of fighting occuring between males (this is due to all the breeding going on and is very common). I did not split the males up.
Saturday 31st August 2019:
- 1st litter born. This is the planned litter. This litter has a four day window to arrive as per my mating methods.
- females are still in large hamster cage. Bar gaps on this cage are XXX (need to measure).
1st September 2019;
- Move the two related mums to a fresh new really big cage.
- Count up the babies from litter (1st, planned litter). It's massive, 25 pups counted. The mums seem to have put them all in one huge pile. I'm yet to see the first time mum with her pups. She's a first time mum and it's concerning me esp upon realising how large the communal litter actually is. Something doesn't feel right, I do not cull any kits. I do have to move everyone tho.
- New cage is pictured below and the bar spacings are:
10th September 2019:
- I had a male rat escape his cage during the night. Sam. I took pictures of him during this night before I put him away. Looking at the babies I do not think the rats are sam's babies (he's hooded and only produces blue hooded and berkshire babies. None of the babies are hooded and there are silvers and badgers in the litter. Mum is a self and does not produce badgers on her own. Only Aro would produce these babies due to the genetics (Harry, Aro's father, does not produce dumbo's). If Sam was the dad about 50% of litter would be hooded. None are hooded). Apart from the obvious difficulties of mating through cage bars (if it was in the bigger cages I could see this being possible as the gap is much wider between the bars), genetically, Sam is not the father of these babies. There is not one hooded baby.
From 21st-25th September 2019:
- mum looks pregnant. I put it down to no longer nursing her babies and retaining milk in her ducts. As i did not think pregnancy was possible it did not even enter my mind. Mum is huge. I do not know why I did not consider pregnancy looking back.
- If mum conceived 10th, this would be too soon to look so big. These dates are not spot on though.
25th September 2019;
- Mum was huge. I kept thinking hmmmm "mums huge". I even took a picture to prove it (this is how i know the exact date). Pregnancy did not cross my mind at all because in my mind this was not possible. Looking back of course she must have been ready to pop.
27th - 30th September:
- At some point in this time the mystery shock litter have been born. I was none the wiser (amazingly!). Mum had birthed the babies in a fluffy bed so had not made a nest for them as she usually would.
- Mum was looking very large around the time the babies were four weeks old. I had put this down to the babies ceasing to suckle milk and milk being retained and building up in her glands.
Wednesday 9th October 2019:
- discovery of the new litter. Shock. Horror. Lots of wandering around & "oh my God"-ing.
15th October 2019:
- Estimating rat babies age. Eyes are open. I suspect they are much smaller than they should be so its extremely hard to estimate age based on their size or milestones (such as growing fur or opening their eyes as development would be delayed, depending on the severity of deprivation, which is caused by the first litter especially considering the large age gap). First litter were removed at five weeks, which is a considerable amount of time to be deprived. I am going to estimate (based on previous litters from this mum) their age to be 2 weeks, As their development could be severely delayed, I will estimte at 2-3weeks. They can not be any older. They're very very small but i dont think this is indicative of their age in anyway.
Estimating Birth Date of Litter
I am currently left trying to estimate babies age. There are certain milestones babies hit methodically, regardless if the babies had been deprived of milk by the first litter. Basically, even though the litter seem very tiny, there are still ways to tell their approx age. I have worked out babies are three weeks old as of yesterday. This is based on the following facts;
Based on the above, I am estimating the pups date of birth as 23rd - 25th September.
- Their eyes were already open the day i discovered them. The babies could not be ahead developmentally so they must have been at least two weeks old when I found them. This seems awful that i did not notice them in all this time BUT their mother for some reason put them in a bed that is tied up high in the cage. There is no reason for me to look in there, when i clean the cage it is only the bottom i would clean as she had a litter of babies and i would try not to mess things up too much just keep them clean.
- When baby rats are three weeks old their fur goes really fluffy and extra! This happened to the babies and you can see it on the photograph below. The rat just seems much younger because she is so much smaller but her fur has definitely "fluffed out". When the rat is 4 weeks, the fur thins back out again and it stays this way. Baby pictured is clearly a rex but the fur is still fluffed. If pups had not been having to share with much older siblings the pup in the photo would be much fatter and seem fluffier.
Based on the above, I am estimating the pups date of birth as 23rd - 25th September.
Immaculate Conception?
Of course, that's impossible. So, what is possible and what are reasonable explanations for this litter?
To answer this, we need to work out an estimated date of conception.
As gestation period can last between 21-23 days, conception is likely to have occurred between 31st August (coincidentally!) and 2nd September. This is a huge coincidence, I think. Bear with me, I am writing this as I discover these dates and coincidences for myself. This makes the 2nd mystery litter possible. Not just possible, but is also a good explanation for the disastrous fate of the majority of the first litter. Mum was pregnant again from the get go, and knew she was going to struggle to feed them so must have reduced the numbers of her litter.
To answer this, we need to work out an estimated date of conception.
As gestation period can last between 21-23 days, conception is likely to have occurred between 31st August (coincidentally!) and 2nd September. This is a huge coincidence, I think. Bear with me, I am writing this as I discover these dates and coincidences for myself. This makes the 2nd mystery litter possible. Not just possible, but is also a good explanation for the disastrous fate of the majority of the first litter. Mum was pregnant again from the get go, and knew she was going to struggle to feed them so must have reduced the numbers of her litter.