5 weeks SHOULD be fine.... I seperated mine at 4 1/2 weeks

if they were pregnant you can have as many as 20 babies per litter... my foster litter was 17 (3 died hwoever)

 

Please look into emergency spays like now!! Those rats at that young will most likely die in labor not to mention what in the world are you gonna do with a possible 100 rattie babies. Also FYI rats sexually mature at 4 wks. Please do the right thing here if you truly love these girls (which i'm sure you do or you wouldn't be here)

 

I honestly doubt they would be UNLESS he kept them with an adult male until 5 weeks. There was a report of a 3 1/2 week old girl getting pregnant from her father.

 

well regardless I think an emergency spay would be a good idea, you never know

 

the reason i think theyre pregnant is b/c all of the girls are fatter than the guys, oh and theyre mice not rats (not allowed to have rats)

 

I think they are mice, not rats...

 

spay a mouse???? i've never heard of that before! wouldnt they die cuz mice are so tiny?

 

do you have any idea how much money it would cost to spay that many mice! lol. i am sure a petstore would take the babies off your hands. i know they may end up snake food, but what other choices is there if you have 30-50 or so baby mice running around.

 

ooooooooo mice not rats... I was about to say, rats can't get pregnant until 6 weeks.. mice I'm clueless about

also, why not spay mice? I have two spayed female rats because they were possibly pregnant... it turned out they weren't, but their mother was (she was spayed as well). I don't know if mice can be spayed or not.... I know boy mice can be neutered fairly easily

 

my vet has speyed mice before! Out of 10, he lost 2.....not a bad effort considering their size.

 

I don't know that much about rats or mice, but I would seperate them at about 4 weeks old from what I've heard. Also I know the smaller the animal is the more chance you are taking that the animal will die while being spayed/neutered. An idea for the babies might be to post them for adoption as free to good home with that many under the rescue section...Also I don't know how mommy mice are with other mice's babies, but maybe you could put all the female baby rats with some moms (of the new babies) and the male ones with others so that way the next "batch" will NOT get pregnant...

 

I think the cost of spaying/neutering a mouse are very very high.. I was reading about neutering gerbils in some site (sorry, but I don't have the link) and the average cost of it was around $150. Also, the higher risk about neutering/spaying such a small animals is that they need a specific anesthesia, cause regular one, used for bigger animals, would kill them.. that's why the cost is so high...

 

do you have any idea how much money it would cost to spay that many mice! lol. i am sure a petstore would take the babies off your hands. i know they may end up snake food, but what other choices is there if you have 30-50 or so baby mice running around.

I hope they dont end up as snake food!!:mad2:

 

well if they are pregnant i am going to get more aquariums and im going to keep them all! im not going to give them to some stupid petstore! the petstore near my house keeps all of the mice in one tank and lets the females get pregnant, i read the writing on the cage and patch was born sept.2 and she had her babies on nov.3 at about 10:00 am so patch was pretty young.........

 

Good luck!

 

Wow, I commend you. But I also encourage you to make sure you will be able to have all the supplies, time, and health care available to them. You don't want to overdo yourself and have depressed mice, either! But I am very glad you are thinking things through.
Mice should be seperated at 4 - 4 1/2 weeks. And they can be spayed, but it is easier and cheaper just to be good in seperating.
PS - the best time to sex the babies is at about 5-10 days because you can see the female's nipples fairly well prior to a lot of hair growth.

Good luck!

 

Anyway both mice and rats can get pregnant at FOUR WEEKS, and it is possible and safe with an expierienced vet. Anyway good luck