Pregnant Rat?

[cazxxxx3]

Hi

I have a rat that comes and goes into the garden but a neighbour is particulary worried as seems to think that it looks hugh -in other words she thinks it is pregnant. Now this neighbour is 80 and is worried about the rat coming into her home. My question is firstly can you tell from a slight distance if the rat is pregnant and secondly what is the chances of a rat entering a home?

[aeshna5]

They will certainly enter a home if they are able to. We fairly regularly get Wood Mice coming in (have never had a House mouse!) which we use humane traps to remove, but I got suspicious when a couple of apples were removed from the fruit bowl in the kitchen with bite marks- I was pretty sure a mouse couldn't lift these up.

We could hear movements at night + i eventually had a couple of brief sightings- a young Brown Rat- which seemed to get everywhere as I later found footprints in some dust behind the computer keyboard. My partner called in a pest control officer as it was highly undesirable in the house from both a health point of view + a worry of it chewing through wires. He said they tend to avoid traps + put down some poison in trays which was soon devoured + after c5 days no further evidence of it.

I don't like the use of poison, but we seemed to have no other option in this case.

[Dogghound]

As aeshna says it may enter the house. I doubt you would be able to tell if its pregnant from a glimpse, they do pack on extra fur, fat and weight at this time of year. Also it could have just had a good meal. Breeding does occur in the colder months but does slow down. Although this again depends on alot of factors.