Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Can mice and rats have sex, and get pregnant?

Me and my aunt were wondering, because her rat keeps getting out of the cage; there might be a mice running through the house. We were just wondering if it is possible for rats and mice to have sex, and get pregnant. Help us out. :)Can mice and rats have sex, and get pregnant?
No, mice and rats cannot reproduce together. They can definitely have sex, but they will not get pregnant. That said, try to keep your rat from getting mixed up with mice. Rats are predators when necessary and will kill and eat any smaller animals they find, including hamsters, gerbils, mice, various bugs... The list goes on and on.


If your rat is constantly escaping, it's time for a new cage. Your rat may not have enough to occupy itself in its current cage. Try adding hammocks, tunnels and platforms for climbing. If your cage only has one level, either build another level or get a cage with two levels.


Barring that, it might be time to get your rat a friend. Rats thrive on company and attention, and the only way to be sure they get enough is to buy them in pairs. If your rat is older, you're going to want to get two younger rats so that they can play with each other instead of bothering grandpa.


When introducing new rats to an older rat, start out by keeping them in a separate cage for a week with NO contact. Wash your hands thoroughly before going between them. If possible, keep them in different rooms.


After the week is up and the new ratties have shown no health problems, start introducing them on a neutral area (in other words, something the older rat hasn't peed all over). Good ideas are your couch, your bathtub, bathroom... anything they haven't claimed.





Your rat may also be escaping because it hasn't been getting enough time outside of its cage. A rat needs to have a big area to play in at least 1 hour a day, with you supervising of course. Find a safe room (like the bathroom), fill it up with little toys (which can be something as simple as a treat wrapped in a ball of paper) and let the rat run around until it's worn out.


I would give my boys two hours of play time. After about an hour and a half of running, fighting and sniffing everything, they would all congregate in my lap and take a half hour nap while I read.





You'll find that by spending this hour a day with your rat, your rat wants nothing more than to be with you. You'll be greeting by scrabbling paws at a cage door everytime you walk by it. Some people even let their rats have the run of the house, or of a larger room like the living room. They always come back, especially if they hear the shaking of a box of yogurt drops. And if your rat is very comfortable with you, you'll find they want to spend more time with you than exploring.Can mice and rats have sex, and get pregnant?
Unless you're worried about rats picking up parasites from the new rat (internal or external), keeping them in the same room, or anywhere where you have central or shared air, would be just the same as keeping them in the same cage. The SDA virus is your main concern when introducing rats.

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do this to find out go to the pet store and get a mouse and put it in the cage with the rat and find out they will fight till the death i have raised mice and rats b4 big mistake lol have fun
Put a clothes peg on the doors of his cage. My buck rat kept getting out if i was fussing one of my other pets and as the others are mostly ferrets, even though they never bother with him, i decided that safety came first.
for all of you that say rats will kill a mouse that is so not true i own 2 large female rats an a lil female Fancy mouse an they all live happily in one cage.only thing the rats do is carry the mouse around in their mouths like she is their baby.
no because the rats will kill the mice before they can do anything in most cases!
yeah, they can't. Mus and Rattus are totally different. Rats can interbreed, and mice can, but I'm not sure if they'd have viable offspring. Like with mules, donkeys and horses can breed, but the babies are sterile (meaning they can't reproduce)








I wonder what would happen though, like, what the babies would look like, if they actually could.
why not? theres ligers..
If rats, and mice couldn't have sex there would be none by now.





EDIT:Ohhh, i read your question wrong. No they can't.
nope

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