07/30/2025
No, you're not seeing double.
This is Shiva, and she was born with six legs.
We understand that many other breeders will be disgusted, thinking Shiva did not deserve a chance and should have been culled. We have kept her a secret for about 7 weeks from most people as we know that reactions will be extremely mixed. My heart couldn't take being bashed when she was a bit younger, but we have to post her at some point. I know exactly what some people will say, I would've probably agreed if I hadn't experienced her life and gotten to know her firsthand. Everybody is completely allowed to have their own opinions. I will try to address every big point in this post, but if you want to know more we are happy to answer questions and share more.
•Is she a twin? Can she move her legs?
She is not a conjoined twin/chimera. The extra legs on her body are all hers. Her pelvis was displaced very early on in development. This caused her cells to essentially get confused and “panic”, growing extra legs.
Her extra legs have bone, muscle, joints, and tendons. I can physically bend them normally with no issues, but she has no control over them.
Her feet even had full toes and nails. Her paws had little bumps and ridges just as fully formed, normal feet would.
it has no official name, but it is a developmental anomaly of her pelvic girdle.
•Are her siblings normal?
Shiva was born on Friday the 13th, under the full moon. She was part of a full, big litter. None of her other siblings had any deformities. About 35 babies were born on the same day, and another 10 were born the next day.
•Is this the result of inbreeding?
She is NOT a genetic monster. This isn't a genetic deformity whatsoever. It is believed she suffered a prenatal injury. The vet believes it was likely caused by her sibling kicking her very early on and displacing her pelvis. Many people have accused her as being an “in**ed monster”.
Most pet rats are in**ed, if you have a pet rat from a well-known and trusted breeder, that rat has been in**ed. I could make an entire post on the benefits for linebreeding when it comes to pet rats, but it would be very long. The short way to explain is that linebreeding creates healthier, friendlier rats.
No, Shiva is not the best argument for linebreeding but her deformity is NOT because of inbreeding.
Regardless, her mother is not being bred again.
•Is she intersex, male, or female?
She is fully female and has two “cloacas” on both sides of her legs. She p*es simultaneously on both sides from both holes, and can p**p from either hole. However we believe that her uterus is fused to only one side. This does raise her chances for bladder infections. As stated many times, she is under constant supervision and care and has quick access to any antibiotics needed. And no, we are obviously never going to breed her. That never crossed our minds even once. She is likely fully sterile, but besides that it would probably kill her. We would never risk her life for absolutely no reason like that.
•Are her legs splayed? Does this cause issues?
Her legs are indeed splayed. She does have mild hip dysplasia. The vet sees no reason to euthanize her as it stands, and she's being kept in a cage specialized for her unique needs to limit her climbing. (Though, limiting her climbing can be tough as she acts like a little monkey.)
•Does she still have six legs?
Yes and no. Her pelvis is still deformed and can never be fixed, as confirmed by the vet. She no longer has the bottom parts of her legs or her cute feetsies. This is for the best, as we were worried about the possibility of her legs catching and getting broken in the worst case scenario. Though, we do miss her extra feet. She still has two joints left that still bend.
Also, it is not a tumor as that seems to be a popular question.
•Why are her toes black in her older pictures?
This is the part that really shocked me. Her toes had turned black and shrunk very early on in her development which caused us to consider euthanasia. This seemed to show she was losing blood flow in her legs to me. I still have no answer, but it seems that overnight her toes started to get blood flow and looked normal almost suddenly. The most damage she sustained was she lost a nail. One of her feet is missing a toe, but she was born that way. It did not fall off. All her other toes still had nails, even. If anybody has an answer to this, I am pleased to hear.
•Why did you not cull her?
I know this will sound like an excuse, but I am glad it happened this way.
I was extremely busy with work and life right when all 45 babies were born. Normally, we only have about 2-15 babies at once. I always do a full health check on every single baby to ensure I do not need to do an emergency cull on any babies. This time I didn't. I beat myself up for a very long time over this, that I missed such a big deal. If I had seen Shiva the first day, she would've been culled without a second thought. I had been checking on the moms and 1-2 babies in each litter to make sure they were being adequately fed. I was also just p*eking into the nest. I thought this was fine, but was sick and horrified when we did full health checks when they were a week old.
We wanted to scream, and I wanted to throw up when we saw Shiva. We were horrified and fully prepared to cull her.
Though, we stopped and considered the fact that she had a full milk band- was reacting normally, and all around thriving.
We decided to give her another day- which turned into a few more days- days turned to weeks and we decided to take Shiva to the vet for a professional health check.
The vet saw no reason to euthanize her in her current state, and agreed she was thriving.
I have also fallen in love with Shiva, and see her “faults” as unique. I love her enough that I am willing to let her go if anything is too much for her.
•Is she special needs, does she require extra care?
Oh yes, she has special needs. So far she has been very easy to care for. But she must be closely monitored and kept in a specialized cage to ensure an easier life on her. She has immediate access to any antibiotics if needed and her cage is set up to be easy on the hips. She's being kept with elderly rats to hopefully minimize any roughhousing.
Anybody who has talked to us or met us knows we love our animals and would do anything for them. They are special to us, but we know when to let go. When it's her time, we will be able to say goodbye to her.
Shiva also has a vet that knows her case. He is always ecstatic to see her, as she is so unique.
•Does she urinate and p**p okay?
Surprisingly yes, so far. She p*es simultaneously out of both sides with no issues. We were terrified for when she would wean, but her p**ps have been okay so far. The vet never acknowledged any concerns he had about this. She has had a couple of large sized p**ps that she had a hard time pushing out fully, but a warm q-tip helped instantly. This is the most extra help she's needed so far.
She's about 7 weeks old and she was separated from mom when she was about 4.5 weeks old. We normally let female babies stay with their mom for longer than the males, but we wanted to get the weaning process over quicker to see how she did.
Her p*e has been recently staining her lump, and she sometimes needs some p**p cleaned up, but she has never received any burns or issues besides this.
•Did you make the post about if she was male or female?
Yes, I made that post because it is jarring seeing her for the first time and I thought it would be funny. I see so many “is my rat male or female?” posts everyday that I wanted to shock some people who were quickly scrolling by. I know she's fully a female, I've known since day one. Both of her bodies have ni***es. I also wanted to test the waters to see a general reaction. We do have a sense of humor about her and her spare tires.
