Anyone Owned a Pet Rat?

Our family became the owners of the sweetest pet rat named Lola in early December. Lola's previous family estimated her age to be 1.5-2 years old based on when they had purchased her from the pet store and their year+ ownership of her.

They gave her up because they could not let her out of her cage for free time as much as they wanted. We took her on, and my girls have been good about giving Lola the freedom and play time she needs. I can't believe how sweet and not scary a pet rat can be.

Not having owned a rat before, I have read up on their care and realize that Lola is definitely elderly if not at the end of her life span. She is very active though and seems happy.

I was wondering for any rat owners out there how long your rat lived? Do they slow down as they age and are there signs when the end of life is near? We did take her to the vet right after getting her because she was urinating blood. A dose of antibiotics took care of that and 2 months later she is still going strong with us.

Thanks!
Vegasworm

 

No, but I trapped a mouse in the garage sat. night.

 

Not a lengthy life at all...back on the rural route.

We'd occasionally find a field mouse had managed to get into the grain barrel (55 gallon waxed cardboard type) and obviously - had no way out. That is unless Bones (our old gray tom cat) lent a hand. We'd hold him over the barrel until he saw the mouse. Once he started to wiggle, we'd drop him in and that settled that. Life on the farm. What would pass for a 'non-traditional pet' was pretty much a euphemism for 'that which is not long for this world'.

But it looks good on you, though.

 

Grain with “extra” protein. Nice.

 

We had rats as pets when our children were younger 4 total (Brie, Colby, Cheddar and Feta?) maybe all at once, I can not remember. If memory serves correct the oldest lived to about 3 years.

Our oldest would walk around the house with them on his shoulder and would they run in his room outside the cage under strict supervision. The odd thing to us was that they were not as messy as we thought.

 

no, but I've worked with quite a few.

 

If you had Italian rat you could have called it Mozzarella.

 

You probably don't want to hear my experiences with rats. (I was a lab assistant in grad school and one time following.) However, I can tell you that a domestic rat will probably live a couple of years or so in captivity. Their lifespan tends to be short, as in the wild they are very vulnerable to predation, disease, accident, etc. When I was young, we had hamsters and rabbits as pets, and the hamsters would usually last maybe 2 years on average. Rabbits would go typically several years.

 

My wife kept hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils and rats in her elementary school classroom. The rats lived two to four years and were prone to tumors. They were by far the most entertaining members of the bunch.

 

I want a comfort rat to fly with me.

 

We are serious about our pet rats here in Billings!
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/aug/28/two-day-standoff-over-pet-rats-ends-man-was/

 

My sister ended up taking home the classroom rats AND mice when we were growing up. The rats lived about 4 years for the oldest one. The mice...they were so incredibly stupid (according to my mom), she put them all out in the field.

 

Like the legendary subway rats!

 

I can lend you Lola!

You VMBers crack me up!!!

Vegasworm

 

Italian rats get "whacked"

 

http://www.ratforum.com/index.php

There is a forum for everything.

(I say this on a forum for a gambling paradise)

 

/me puts on an old Smashing Pumpkins album and cranks it!

 

Well, I've learned that Lola maybe has a year left in her and there are A LOT OF PRACTICAL JOKERS on this site.

I love it!!!!!

Vegasworm

 

This has absolutely nothing to do with rats but what other chance would I have to interject this in to a conversation.

A woman I worked with was the head of the local ferrett rescue program. Those things sort of creeped me out, and there was sort of a funk with them. She was really passionate about it, they were kinda' cool I guess.

Apparently there is no correct answer for " how many ferrets to make a coat ? " Ferret owners have no sense of humor.