Friday, October 02, 2015

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.

10 comments:

  1. I suspected as much as most animals do come in all shapes and sizes indeed.

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  2. Wow! Lucky looked really soft!

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    1. Oh he really was and he was a big cuddle rat. So friendly and loved to come out and play.

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  3. This posts really illustrates how every rat is different. We got three of our four rats from the same nest and all four from the same rattery and even with those four we noticed differences.

    They all had very different personalities and Pita and Snickers were a bit bigger and heavier, while Smarties was a bit lighter and Skitles stayed pretty small and active. The smaller rats also were the most active rats, so maybe that's why they weighted less. The differences got more obvious once they got older.

    That picture of Romi in your shirt is adorable! Our rats loved to snuggles with me in my shirts and often fel asleep when they finally sat still. I still miss them.

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    1. Most people don't realize how each rat has their own personality just like a dog or cat or any other animal. Some are active and some are cuddlers. I'm glad you liked the pictures. Romi was such a sweetheart.

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  4. Our daughter's first rat was on the small side, but her newest is all muscle...looks like the super hero cartoon of Mickey Mouse..with biceps..LOL

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    1. Those muscly rats crack me up. They look like they could bench press a barbie car for fun. lol

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