Huge gap between births - is this possible?

I've got a girl named Io. We initially paired her with a male,
Splinter, but there seemed to be no interaction between the two, so we
removed Splinter and matched her with Dimitri. She gave birth about
three weeks ago to only 4 babies, one of whom died.

The survivors (Scope, Iris, and Prophet) are all healthy little guys
with dumbo ears and long fuzzy coats. Today, though, when moving the
cage, I made a discovery: Io gave birth again! There are 5 new babies
in her cage.

Is it possible for births to span this great a range? I can't see how;
it was my understanding that gestation took about three weeks and Io's
had no contact with a male (beyond her newborns) for more than length
of time. And, of course, she was pregnant until three weeks ago.

Is it possible for these most recent babies to have developed so
slowly they were born of the same father but weeks later? Can a rat
have long-gestation periods and/or carry the children of multiple
fathers at once?

"Sarlax" <Sarlax.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191186273.071692.5730@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Io gave birth again! There are 5 new babies
> in her cage.
>
> Is it possible for births to span this great a range? I can't see how;
> it was my understanding that gestation took about three weeks and Io's
> had no contact with a male (beyond her newborns) for more than length
> of time. And, of course, she was pregnant until three weeks ago.
>
> Is it possible for these most recent babies to have developed so
> slowly they were born of the same father but weeks later? Can a rat
> have long-gestation periods and/or carry the children of multiple
> fathers at once?

Congratulations. Please make sure Io has lots of high protein food as
she will need it. She will need a lot of TLC and is probably very tired
from nursing one litter while her second was developing.

Female rats have the ability to store a male's sperm and give birth to
litters weeks apart from two matings.
The new litter will have developed normally, probably as the result of
the second mating.

HTH
--
Ratty Hugs & Cavy Kisses

Jackie
Ably Hindered by The Buck House Crew

"Behavioral psychology is the science of pulling habits out of rats."
Dr. Douglas Busch