How Big Do Rats Get

Last month I had a couple of people ask me how big rats get. It's a tricky question because they actually can be many sizes. Over the last 15 years I've had some really big rats and some petite rats like Flower. So I thought I would just show you. This is Ares, Brodie, Hades and Jasper. Brodie was the smallest of the bunch and he's the one to the right in back of the two facing front. Jasper who is facing front was the biggest rat I've ever had. I'll post more pictures of him later in this post. Right next to him is the black and white rat and that's Hades who was almost as big as Jasper and then next to him was Ares who was a little smaller. 

Lucky who was my 3 legged rat was really big too. He was just under 3 lbs and was 17 inches long. 

Then there was Marbles who was a medium size rat at just 2 lbs and 15 inches long. His fur is curly and missing in some places because he is a Rex rat and he had the hairless gene but his fur came out all wonky. 

And this was Marbles brother, Patches. Patches was the smallest rat I've ever had. He was the size of a small hamster with a small tail and he only weighed 1.2 lbs. He was also a Rex and has soft curly fur. 

Jasper was the biggest rat I've ever owned. He was 19 inches long from nose to tail and weighed a whopping 3Lbs. I sat him next to a paper towel roll so you could see how big he was. 

The paper towel roll was 11 inches long.

And his tail was about 8 inches long. 19 inches all together. 

And then there's Flower who is petite and small. She is a hairless rat. I haven't weighed her because my scale broke a while back but she's not more than 1.5 lbs and she's not long at all. Not that she would sit still long enough for me to measure her. lol 

Most times male rats are bigger than female rats and female rats usually have more energy than males. When males get older they usually turn into chubby, laid back lap rats who want to be held and petted. Female rats usually keep that energy they have most of their lives and are zip, zip zipping around like the energizer bunny. 

But that's not always the case. This was Romi. She was my first female rat and she turned out to be a very big girl and she loved to just lay on me or next to me and be petted. She was almost 3 lbs and about 16 inches long. 

Romi was like Flower and loved to hide in my shirt and even sleep there while I was watching a movie on the couch. While she did have a lot of energy she would also cuddle when she felt like it too. 

These are not all of the rats that I've had but as you can see they do come in all sorts of different sizes. I hope I answered some of your questions.