A pair of Lanarkshire animal lovers had been shocked after shopping for two child rats from a pet store - after which waking as much as discover 15 within the cage three days later.
Megan Corrigan and her girlfriend Daisy Crawford purchased the 2 £12.50 feminine rats from Pets at Residence in Coatbridge final Saturday, Could 7.
The Hamilton couple determined to call the pair Dolly and Janis and had been drawn to at least one as a result of she was "chunky".
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Unbeknown to them, or anybody on the retailer, Dolly was truly carrying pups.
Megan and Daisy could not imagine their eyes after they wakened on Tuesday morning to seek out the rodents of their cage as ordinary however surrounded by child rats.
Dolly was nonetheless in the midst of giving beginning to a few of her offspring when the Scots pair walked in.
She went on to ship 13 pups however ended up consuming three of them.
That is frequent for rats that breed for the primary time as they will panic seeing their infants and confuse them as international our bodies.
The couple had been delighted that in the long run they managed to get 12 rats as an alternative of two and plan to maintain all of them collectively.
Megan posted in regards to the incident on Twitter, writing: "Me and my Mrs received two child rats on the weekend from Pets at Residence.
"We wakened this morning to 13 different child rats. Really feel like we have received the lottery."
Grownup feminine rats produce a mean of 40 infants per 12 months.
They will breed all year long in beneficial circumstances and are capable of conceive inside 48 hours of giving beginning.
Megan mentioned: "Me and my associate purchased two child rats on Saturday, Dolly and Janis.
"We picked Dolly as a result of she was a bit chunkier than others however then we wakened on Tuesday and located Dolly giving beginning.
"In complete she birthed 13 rats however she ate three of them on account of well being issues.
"Me and my associate had been utterly in awe.
"We're hopefully going to boost them collectively as a household.
"I really feel like animals however particularly rats do not get the possibility to develop up in a household.
"Mama Dolly is conserving nicely. I've needed to put Janis into one other cage proper now for a couple of weeks only for security precautions.
"What has in all probability occurred is that Dolly grew to become pregnant from one other rat in her litter.
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"Fortunately after I rang pets at residence they gave me a free cage and provided to take the infants however me and my associate insisted on conserving them."
Rats start breeding as quickly as 5 weeks of age and proceed till about age two.
Females are fertile roughly each three weeks and through this time they've been identified to mate as much as 500 occasions in six hours.
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