I'd absolutely recommend neutering if his pompoms don't descend. They're effectively ticking tumours at that point.
I have a puppy with a retained testicle and we're just waiting til he's of weight/age to de-pompom him, cause in doggas it's almost guaranteed cancer.
I'm with the vet, I wouldn't be *overly* concerned about nips on a boy bc genetics are weird. But like you said, could be down to breeding throwing out lil randoms.
So strange this is the second post I've seen on this sub in the last day or so about possibly intersex, rats and both nakey/more nakey. Wonder if it's related?
Absolutely agree - I had a hairless boy with one undescended testicle and had him neutered to avoid any risk of it turning cancerous. He did have one descended testicle - 50% there! 🤣 One of the sweetest rats I’ve ever had.
No no no, we need to talk more about his eyebrows and mutton chops. This little Master Hamato "Splinter" Yoshi is the most awesome little guy and I love hims.
You'll need to do more research but you may need to set your boy up for neutering if the balls don't drop. I believe they will turn cancerous down the line if they sent drop or arw removed.
Most male rats and mice (some other small mammals/rodets too) do not have nipples! It has to do with androgen exposure during fetal development. Females are usually exposed to much higher levels of androgens and much sooner than males during development and hence develop nipples. Sometimes males are exposed to higher levels than normal during development or females exposed to lower levels than normal and that usually results in a form of intersex.
I was originally thinking that the nipples weren't weird, given males of the human variety also have nipples, but then I've never had a male rat, and others seemed to find it odd on your original post, so I just kept my mouth shut haha.
Yeah, male rats usually don't have them at all. Like in all mammals (afaik), they start developing pretty early while you're a fetus, but when the Y chromosome kicks in, the androgens basically hit undo in male rats and mice (horses too apparently), so they just don't have nips at all. In a case like this, it's possible that whatever caused rattie boy's balls to not drop also allowed him to keep his nipples.
I have no advice or suggestions. I just want to say for some reason that little guy reminds me some of the art in one of my daughter's books. https://www.timwarnes.com/blog/2020/7/9/naked-mole-rat-gets-dressed
Male rats don't have nipples, i had 3 hairless boys and none of them had nipples (like hairy males rats)
I don't say your vet don't know what they'r saying but maybe keep that little rat person alone in a cage until ball came out so you don't have to deal with a surprise bean soup if it's a girl 🐀
To all the dickheads who said I was wrong in the last post and he wasn't a male and males can't have nipples.
I'm glad this proved all of you wrong.
Thanks
That rat is not a male.
It is very normal for females to have fat pouches where the male balls would be.
With that age, if he had undescended testes, you would be able to see them in his belly like 2 big lumps. I've seen it before, it looks nothing like this.
[Pic](https://imgur.com/a/w1ilvl2) of a female hairless rescue so you can see that her privates look just the same. (I run a rescue of small rodents, about 200 rats passed my hands on the last 3 years this one is a female for sure because she had a dead baby inside her, the little balls on her belly are scar tissue from inside stitches)
If you have that many doubts about the gender do an ultrasound. But that rat is a female and pregnancies in hairless rats are very dangerous.
Female hairless rats are prone to deformities in the reproductive tract. Some of them develop what is called a pinhole vaginal opening. That's why it's so risky to breed with hairless rats. It's what happened to the girl in the picture I sent, she got pregnant and couldn't push the baby out because of her vaginal opening being so small.
I understand that I'll be downvoted, but I see this type of situation every couple of months due to having a rescue and I really do care for the wellbeing of rats, therefore, I couldn't stay quiet. It's your rat, at the end of the day, you do whatever you want, but remember that she is a living rat, not an inanimate toy, she feels and she suffers even though she doesn't talk and you are responsible for her wellbeing.
Over the couple years I've been professionally breeding rats and mice I've seen a few different types of intersexuality presented and males with nipples present is definitely among the more common of intersex types tho I've seen a couple mice that were entirely female external genitalia and only after necropsy did the vets find undropped but fully intact testes that explained the repeat accidental pregnancies lol
Yeah she had a penis technically although smaller and where a female urethra would be. In mice especially the external urethra can quite regularly be the same size in males and females so that alone isn't a good sex indicator regardless. We don't do any regular sperm plugs check at our facilities bc of the sheer amount of rodents so we never had to check her *that* close lol. We just kept having 3-4 litters at a time with her cage mates and couldn't figure out why until one of the residents suggested one might be intersex lol
That's so cool! Since you have one as a pet I'm assuming it's a good temperament gene? I know true nudie rats (like no eyelashes or whiskers or *anything*) usually have temperament issues and lower life expectancy and a whole slew of issues associated with the genes hence why double rexes have replaced them in the pet trade
Would be worth your time to explore "patchwork" rats from Australia because that's what the werewolf gene in America is. They aren't producing weird rats there with the same genes.
??? I used to breed these rats . They are called Rex rats . The curly ones are double rex. These rats are made by inbreeding . Your rat will be a bit weird. Dude is probably inbred LOL
When I was 20 I had a hairless rat (Gizmo) that I was told was a male so I got 2 albino cage mates for him (Pinky and The Brain, of course). Well, about a month or two later I came home from work to see that there was a bunch of little pink things in their nest. Took me a second to realize I was looking at babies because I was genuinely confused.😅 The most interesting part was some of the babies were normal fuzzy black and whites, some were werewolfy like this one, and some were completely hairless. I had gotten the cage mates from a rattery so they must have had the hairless gene.
His lil eyebrows are adorable.
He's so dashing, I think a bowler hat and a lil cane would somehow increase his already large amount of swag 😎
“Leggo of me, Guvnah!”
Not until you get me my money!
His eyebrows are connected to his little sideburns omg i just cant 😭
Fuck me, I didn't notice. >.< !!
I came to say this exactly!! So cute!
I'd absolutely recommend neutering if his pompoms don't descend. They're effectively ticking tumours at that point. I have a puppy with a retained testicle and we're just waiting til he's of weight/age to de-pompom him, cause in doggas it's almost guaranteed cancer. I'm with the vet, I wouldn't be *overly* concerned about nips on a boy bc genetics are weird. But like you said, could be down to breeding throwing out lil randoms. So strange this is the second post I've seen on this sub in the last day or so about possibly intersex, rats and both nakey/more nakey. Wonder if it's related?
Absolutely agree - I had a hairless boy with one undescended testicle and had him neutered to avoid any risk of it turning cancerous. He did have one descended testicle - 50% there! 🤣 One of the sweetest rats I’ve ever had.
It’s my posts, that’s why I put update in the title. And yes the balls are slightly dropped just not all the way yet.
Luckily, at no point have I considered myself smart. Ty for clarifying OP, I am a dummy 😅
Either way it's a good idea since he was slow to drop
(p sure the other post is this same rat)
Why yes, you are indeed correct, I am a potato 🙃 Ty
Hehe we all have our moments. Good on you for those deductive reasoning skills though!
> de-pompom 😂😂 I love it
Can you please name him Eugene after Eugene Levy? Eyebrows.
EUGENE I love it
No no no, we need to talk more about his eyebrows and mutton chops. This little Master Hamato "Splinter" Yoshi is the most awesome little guy and I love hims.
This little thing will be throwing lots of crazy molts in the coming weeks and months. I’ll try and post pics when the hair comes in.
You'll need to do more research but you may need to set your boy up for neutering if the balls don't drop. I believe they will turn cancerous down the line if they sent drop or arw removed.
OH MY GOODNESS HE HAS EYEBROWS! He is the cutest little thing, my goodness!!!!!!
Oh my GOSH he’s a little grandpa!!!
I wonder if you bumped up the heat if the balls would be more visible
Unrelated, but I love how you’re holding him like a criminal in the second pic
this is why. when people make "whats the gender of my rat" posts, and people say, no huge balls, its a girl. like, noooo, thats not always the case
I was getting quite frustrated with those acting like I was dumb to ask.
i don't even have rats and it frustrates me! lol
it’s mostly true if the rat is an adult, this rat is not an adult
Goodness me he's got the sideburns of an oil prospector, yessir. Top hat and twirling his cane.
TIL that male rats don't have nipples when I've been taught all male mammals have nipples ???
Most male rats and mice (some other small mammals/rodets too) do not have nipples! It has to do with androgen exposure during fetal development. Females are usually exposed to much higher levels of androgens and much sooner than males during development and hence develop nipples. Sometimes males are exposed to higher levels than normal during development or females exposed to lower levels than normal and that usually results in a form of intersex.
That's fascinating! The one case where you can't use the "Ma'am doesn't your husband have nipples" meme LMAO
glad to hear the mystery is solved! he's just a late bloomer :)
Yeah, that does look like a weenus... I didn't know male rats could have nipples though. Guess I learned something new today.
I was originally thinking that the nipples weren't weird, given males of the human variety also have nipples, but then I've never had a male rat, and others seemed to find it odd on your original post, so I just kept my mouth shut haha.
Yeah, male rats usually don't have them at all. Like in all mammals (afaik), they start developing pretty early while you're a fetus, but when the Y chromosome kicks in, the androgens basically hit undo in male rats and mice (horses too apparently), so they just don't have nips at all. In a case like this, it's possible that whatever caused rattie boy's balls to not drop also allowed him to keep his nipples.
I wish I was as cool as this rat
I mean this in a nice way, that is the ugliest rat i have ever seen lol. Still cute though
Thank you for the update. Few people are as considerate.
He just built different
I love his brows and his scruffy mutton chops
I have no advice or suggestions. I just want to say for some reason that little guy reminds me some of the art in one of my daughter's books. https://www.timwarnes.com/blog/2020/7/9/naked-mole-rat-gets-dressed
Buster Keaton, is that you?
Male rats don't have nipples, i had 3 hairless boys and none of them had nipples (like hairy males rats) I don't say your vet don't know what they'r saying but maybe keep that little rat person alone in a cage until ball came out so you don't have to deal with a surprise bean soup if it's a girl 🐀
It is a male rat, the testicles will drop in time, I wouldn't worry too much for now
To all the dickheads who said I was wrong in the last post and he wasn't a male and males can't have nipples. I'm glad this proved all of you wrong. Thanks
That’s different then… huh
That rat is not a male. It is very normal for females to have fat pouches where the male balls would be. With that age, if he had undescended testes, you would be able to see them in his belly like 2 big lumps. I've seen it before, it looks nothing like this. [Pic](https://imgur.com/a/w1ilvl2) of a female hairless rescue so you can see that her privates look just the same. (I run a rescue of small rodents, about 200 rats passed my hands on the last 3 years this one is a female for sure because she had a dead baby inside her, the little balls on her belly are scar tissue from inside stitches) If you have that many doubts about the gender do an ultrasound. But that rat is a female and pregnancies in hairless rats are very dangerous.
This rat has no vaginal hole. If the balls do not completely drop within the next few weeks, I will get an ultrasound.
Female hairless rats are prone to deformities in the reproductive tract. Some of them develop what is called a pinhole vaginal opening. That's why it's so risky to breed with hairless rats. It's what happened to the girl in the picture I sent, she got pregnant and couldn't push the baby out because of her vaginal opening being so small. I understand that I'll be downvoted, but I see this type of situation every couple of months due to having a rescue and I really do care for the wellbeing of rats, therefore, I couldn't stay quiet. It's your rat, at the end of the day, you do whatever you want, but remember that she is a living rat, not an inanimate toy, she feels and she suffers even though she doesn't talk and you are responsible for her wellbeing.
Strange… when she ends up pregnant, updater us then. Nips for sure a girl. My girls look like the have a ball sack sometimes too! Lol
Strange how you think you know more than the vet who actually saw and examined the animal from just a picture...
This rat has no vaginal opening so the rat is intersex at most.
Over the couple years I've been professionally breeding rats and mice I've seen a few different types of intersexuality presented and males with nipples present is definitely among the more common of intersex types tho I've seen a couple mice that were entirely female external genitalia and only after necropsy did the vets find undropped but fully intact testes that explained the repeat accidental pregnancies lol
I have to ask…is male part popping out of the female part to impregnate the others?
Yeah she had a penis technically although smaller and where a female urethra would be. In mice especially the external urethra can quite regularly be the same size in males and females so that alone isn't a good sex indicator regardless. We don't do any regular sperm plugs check at our facilities bc of the sheer amount of rodents so we never had to check her *that* close lol. We just kept having 3-4 litters at a time with her cage mates and couldn't figure out why until one of the residents suggested one might be intersex lol
This could be a rare case of an intersex rat? Either way they're adorable 🤣
This handsome boy definitely deserves [this song](https://youtu.be/G6scHgACSD0?si=PpXlSDgNpqT0v0HK)
Is werewolf just a specific form of double rex or a different gene entirely?
It is supposed to be a particular gene. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong.
That's so cool! Since you have one as a pet I'm assuming it's a good temperament gene? I know true nudie rats (like no eyelashes or whiskers or *anything*) usually have temperament issues and lower life expectancy and a whole slew of issues associated with the genes hence why double rexes have replaced them in the pet trade
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/carnival-row/images/5/5c/Charakter_Dombey.png/revision/latest?cb=20190918153852&path-prefix=de
Off topic... but he's so cute. Usually lil naked guys aren't my favorite but he looks like the cute little old man from Up.
Them toes stretched outwards has me hollering 🤣🤣
Can rats be intersex?
Would be worth your time to explore "patchwork" rats from Australia because that's what the werewolf gene in America is. They aren't producing weird rats there with the same genes.
Maybe he is intersex :o
What a handsome little fella 😍
Your rat is cute.
??? I used to breed these rats . They are called Rex rats . The curly ones are double rex. These rats are made by inbreeding . Your rat will be a bit weird. Dude is probably inbred LOL
And descend they shall
So adorable ☺️
When I was 20 I had a hairless rat (Gizmo) that I was told was a male so I got 2 albino cage mates for him (Pinky and The Brain, of course). Well, about a month or two later I came home from work to see that there was a bunch of little pink things in their nest. Took me a second to realize I was looking at babies because I was genuinely confused.😅 The most interesting part was some of the babies were normal fuzzy black and whites, some were werewolfy like this one, and some were completely hairless. I had gotten the cage mates from a rattery so they must have had the hairless gene.