due to house move, followed by Christmas, followed by two family dramas I have not been posting for a while, but....I am back


Sooo, this is more of a feeler thread so that I can try to be a bit organised. I am potentially getting two 8 week olds, one male and one female, who from what I can tell have been living in the same cage (I have no idea if they are related but I am guessing there is the potential for them to be brother and sister). I don't have the space to keep girls and boys at the same time so I will introduce the boy into my current group and re-home the girl (and any babies when they are old enough).
My three current boys are most likely VERY inbred (they came from a horrible large scale rescue where there were about 30 adult rats and 90 babies all kept together in one filthy cage in a shed) and whilst they have always seemed healthy and have no obvious issues, I know that inbreeding is always best avoided where possible. That being said, if I do get the pair and the girl is not showing symptoms of pregnancy, should I take her to the vet and give her galastop just in case? If she is pregnant there will be no way of knowing how far along she is (unless she is really showing), does anyone know the cut off point where using galastop would not be ethical? I have never had a breeding female before but have a good vet and (I would like to believe) good common sense so I am not too worried about the prospect of playing ratty midwife, I just don't want her babies suffering with deformities.
Now for her companion, he is supposedly only 8 weeks old so he should introduce to my current group quite well (who will be 2 years in October) but they are very tightly knit and I would rather introduce him with a friend of his own age so that not all of the attention from the big boys will be on one baby. I have looked at all the websites for the breeders in my area and they either do not have any litters or have long waiting lists. So here is my conundrum...do I do the dreaded thing of buying a little buck from a pet store?

Very sorry for the long thread! Especially as I am not even certain that I am getting them yet (the people have not responded yet) but I have a feeling that I if they say yes then I will be picking them up very quickly so I wanted to get the ball rolling on this one as soon as possible
