Life expectancy??

[astralmoons]

How long can I expect a normal healthy rat to live?  I have seen so many posts about sick and near death rats that i'm worried.  Is raising rats kind of a losing battle?  

[Dearpie]

Normal is 2 - 3 years.  Not long in the scheme of things, but the amount of joy they bring is exponential!

I've had my older guys one year already. I cringe to think what the next two have in store for us...... these are our first ratties.  My heart just BREAKS when I read of others losing theirs.......  

[Nellybird]

Then again, there is that rat that lived to be 7. We can only hope to come close to that with our ratties.

[JulesDoug]

I think we often hear about sick rats here as people post when there is a problem. I think you are doing quite well if your rat companion lives 3 years.
I think with better knowledge n education our rats are living longer and longer.  Stick here kid and your rats will live forever   well not quite!!

[astralmoons]

Well, 3 years is a short lifespan, but I can handle that.  I get so attached to my animals!  I'm still trying to explain to my mother how I can honestly love a rat.  She has no clue when it comes to animals.  She is worried that my daughter is going to get diseased by them.  

Anyone have any information that is on our side about this subject?
I would love to email her with some info that explains how rats get a bad rapp in society from people like her!!

[Joe]

   I do believe that someone estimated how many rats we have between us (all 379 members) was well over 1000, which sounds about right. I'd say, on adverage, everyone has 4. So that comes out to around 1520 rats, give or take four or five. Keep that in mind when you hear of one or two new sicknesses or deaths every week. The overwhelming majority are very healthy due in large I believe to the fact that there's so much knowledge and experience on this forum, that pretty much every problem has been covered.

[astralmoons]

Well Joe, I am so happy to have found this group!  My own ratties are sick right now and if it wasnt for everyone here I would have gone crazy!

Thanks everyone  

[EllisRattery]

This breeder at Petcetera(she doesn't put her rats up for adoption there shes a dog groomer) said that she had heard of rats living to be 13! I was like "Wow!"

Pretty amazing, don't know if it's totally true but they normally live 2-3 years.

[mustang_grl143]

No they are great pets you will have at least two good years with them maybe more  dont let there short lives discurage you they are wonderful cuddly sweet loveing garbage disposals j/k

[Ray]

Then again, there is that rat that lived to be 7. We can only hope to come close to that with our ratties.

Well, my last rat got to 5 years old, but don't expect that!

[WS]

 She is worried that my daughter is going to get diseased by them.  

Anyone have any information that is on our side about this subject?

The bad rap that rats have breaks my heart. People imagine rats as filthy, diseased vermin when nothing could be further from the truth.

Domestic rats are true domestic animals. They have been bred over hundreds of thousands of generations to lose the traits that help them thrive in the wild and to have traits that make them desirable companions for humans.  Like other domesticated companion animals, fancy rats don't have the same level of natural fear of new experiences, predatory instincts, or aggressiveness that wild animals do.  In many ways the domestic fancy rat is as different from it's wild ancestor as a Yorkshire terrier is from a wolf.

Rats are very clean animals and have the same kind of social traits that endears other companion animals to us. Rats like to be with people and bond with us. They are intelligent and trainable.  They are quite unlike any other small "pocket" pet.

Zoonosis (a disease that an animal can pass to a human) is possible with ALL pets. - Birds, cats, dogs...everything but are relatively rare. A domestic rat carries no more danger of passing along a zoonotic disease than a pet cat or dog.   Maybe even less.  In the case of elderly or immune suppressed people, a vet or doctor can answer any questions.  Humans and rats may be able to pass certain strains of streptococcal bacteria to eachother but even this is not a certainty. Bite and scratch wounds from any animal can cause an infection if not treated properly, and it's bite and scratch wounds from pets that cause most of the people/pet injuries. Luckily, rats aren't prone to bite.


Here's a link to more information about zoonotic illnesses in other companion animals:

http://www.healthypet.com/Library/petcare-18.html

[Suebee]

This breeder at Petcetera(she doesn't put her rats up for adoption there shes a dog groomer) said that she had heard of rats living to be 13! I was like "Wow!"

Er... no. The record is 7 years. His name was Mortimer, and he was a well-cared-for lab rat.

[Yresim]

Is it just me, or do males seem to live longer than females.  All of the long-lived rats I've been hearing about have been boys...

Am I just missing posts about long-lived girlie rats, or did I choose to prefer the shorter-lived sex?

[Suebee]

I never thought of that... maybe because of mammary tumors? I've never had females, so I don't have anything to compare in my own home. But I've lost male rats at 4 months old, and I have one that's 2 years, 8 months, so I've run the gamut...

[Ali]

In all the literature (read- bad rat books) I read before finding this forum and other on-line info, they reckoned boys are likely to have shorter life spans than girls - around 2 - 2 1/2 compared to 2 1/2 - 3 for girls.

Haven't seen much evidence of this so far though from posts on here....

[emmamay]

i have to say the years do fly by! it seems like just last week i had gotten my boy(s?)