I hav 2 rats that are now 17 weeks old and were told they are males but there are no balls. are they female?

Question

we got them at 8 weeks old, no sign of balls then and i have read they shud show after 5-6 weeks old. is this true? since my rats are about 17 weeks, could they really be female? we were told they were male but now there ya go lol

Answer 1

Since rats reach sexual maturity at 5 weeks and their testicles show well before that, it's pretty safe to assume they are female. Pet stores will often mislabel the s*x of their small animals or even mix the sexes so you will have the male and female rats together in one or both of the tanks.

There are also other general differences between male and female rats beside their genitalia, such as:

-un-neutered males produce buck grease.

-males are generally more slower and cuddly than females.

-females are generally more active and playful than males.

-males scent mark more often than females will.

If you're still not certain, make an appointment with a vet just to make sure.

Answer 2

they might be female but if you wait a while longer then you can s*x them for yourself to make sure! im sorry but i forgot the website for sexing them but you can yahoo it in pictures or in text!

Answer 3

If they were male, it would be VERY obvious. It's not easy to make mistakes sexing rats.

Where did you get them? Sometimes pet stores have animals mislabeled or the employees don't know what they're talking about.

Sounds like you very well may have females. Do you have a picture?

Sometimes they can "hide" their testicles - especially if you're flipping them upside down and examining their "junk" - but if you haven't seen them at all, I'd assume that they're female.

Answer 4

By 17 weeks old if they were boys it would be very noticable. Alot of times petstore ppl make mistakes sexing these animals because for one they have no clue how to do it and 2 unless you are experienced with this sexing rats is not easy. I can tell when the babies are roughly 2 weeks old most time if they will be male or female. I have had enough litters that I know what to look for. This may help though:

It's very easy to tell the difference between a male and a female rat. Often people can't tell the difference until they've owned a few rats. The distance from the a**s to the genitals is far greater in the male than the female. I hope to get infant photos added here in the near future, because it's much more difficult to see these differences in babies than in adults, unless you have a whole litter to look at so that you can compare the babies. It's harder too to try to compare a growing baby to an adult. Now take a look at the photos below.

Notice how the p***s on the male is far away from the tail, high up nearer the belly. There are no nipples on males. See how the testicles look from behind in the second male photo. With the first male photo look closely where the fur stops, you can see two little lumps just below that fur. No matter what angle you look at them, there is no mistaking those huge testicles. Baby boys will start to drop testicles at around three to four weeks of age. You should be able to tell for certain which is which by the time they are about four to five weeks of age.

Notice on the female that you can clearly see nipples, they look like a series of dark colored dots. You should see nipples on baby girl rats by the time they are ten days or so old, long before they are weaned. See how close to the tail the female's v***a is. What appears to be "something" hanging down from her genital area is nothing but fur. You don't see any lumps of any kind.

My opinion is if the balls havent dropped by now you probably have females.

Answer 5

All i know is there is a larger gap between their parts than females they are young have you any other ones to compare the gaps between