Size:
Large male rats,
fully grown, CAN reach about 10 inches not including tail. However, my
largest was about 8 inches, not including tail. Females are
generally smaller and it takes about a year to reach full size.
One lady that has brought her male rat in a few times, Smokey,
was 830 grams at 9 months old.... (840 grams = two pounds...)
That was one big rat, but I haven't seen another that large.
Life Span:
They live around 2 years
with optimal conditions, but certain mutations limit this.
Housing:
I use a 55 gallon for
my females that are growing up and not breeding size yet.
Breeding pairs go in ferret/chinchilla cages. Larger groups
(Like my Himalayan/Siamese group consists of about 13 rats) go
in even bigger tanks or ferret cages. There are also ten gallon
and 20L/29 gallon tank toppers that come with three levels and
ramps going up and down that I sell. These work very well also
and are very heavy duty.
Sometimes introducing a
new male rat to an established group will cause them to fight,
but this is usually pretty rare. It does seem to be better to
buy at least two rats at once, that way they go home with
another one they already know, and have played with.
Substrate:
Cedar = BAD! That
pretty smell it emits is toxic to rodents and reptiles and
should never be used. Pine also can cause upper respiratory
infection, and every time the rat sneezes it poses the
possibility of rupturing more of its lungs, which in the end
kills it.
I use aspen and
carefresh. Carefresh is my favorite, but a little pricy for all
the rats I have to house. "Yesterday's News" also works very
well, but it would be more convenient for someone that only has
a couple rats, not over 50.
Diet:
I feed Mazuri Complete
Rat and Mouse food. For growing females, I also mix in some
Fiesta hamster/gerbil food. It seems to put a little more weight
on them and they like it a lot more. Once they reach two months
of age, I stop with the hamster food.
Breeding:
They can
breed at 5 weeks of age, but humans can "breed" and 9 yrs. I wait two months,
but if it is a pet, wait at least 4 months. Of course, the more females you have, the more babies you get.
One female can have 8-25 babies and unless you want them to get eaten,
you can watch to see what the other rats do to them, or you can just put
the mother and babies in a separate tank. If the rats you buy are at all
inbred, this raises the aggression level causing them to eat the
babies or become more dominant. Actually, I've found Albinos to
have the healthiest babies, and they seem to grow the fastest.
Really weird.
Sexing:
First of
all, both sexes have an external urinating organ, so if you see this
thing don't automatically think that it's a male. Males have huge sacks,
and when they walk they usually drag right behind them. Also, to make
room for their manlyhood, their penis-looking thing will be further away
from their tails. Females will have little nipples and if you can't see
them, look for the scrotum. Obviously, they won't have one and their
female-penis thing will be closer to the tail. This may be hard to
determine at first, but is usually much easier if you are comparing two
or more.
