If you’re considering having a rat as a pet, or you have these pests in your house causing a stir, you might be curious about the lifespan of a rat. Our guide covers the answer to the question, “how long do rats live?”
Rats are a part of our life and are seen as adorable pets and disease-carrying pests to others. Potential rat owners usually wonder how long their rat will live, but the answer is not exact. Rats live an average of two years, depending on different factors. Let’s take a closer look.
There’s no single answer to the question of how long rats live. Still, they go through an interesting life cycle. The oldest rat was Rodney Trusted Source Oldest rat ever | Guinness World Records www.guinnessworldrecords.com , who died at seven and four months. He lived 3.5 times longer than the standard wild rat.
Before looking at how long pet and wild rats live, knowing their lifecycle is an important part.
Baby rats rely on their mothers for about six weeks and will overgrow at this time, becoming much larger in just one week.
Once they start seeing, they can search for food and walk. After two to three weeks, baby rats would have learned how to fend for themselves and will leave their mother behind.
The next stage in the rat life cycle is the juvenile rat. This stage consists of about eight weeks; the rat will grow and learn important skills.
Juvenile rats develop their sense of smell at this stage, and they use this to find food and grow. These rats will overgrow quickly until they reach adult size.
In this stage, the rat’s brain is growing and developing quickly, so they easily learn and understand new things like how to socialize and survive.
Adult rats would have lost all their baby teeth and now have longer, sharper incisors. They are also more active in exploring their environments.
Adult rats are aggressive Trusted Source High aggression in rats is associated with elevated stress, anxiety-like behavior, and altered catecholamine content in the brain - PMC www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov , this is why it is important to use effective protection like the Trapper T-Rex Rat Trap. They usually end up fighting over food or territory with other rats. These rats are independent, too, spending less time near juvenile rats.
At some point, the adult rat will start losing bone density and muscle mass, and its brain will decline in size. This continues until they eventually die.
Pet owners are probably wondering, “How long do pet rats live?”
Pet rats live an average of two years and up to four years but can live up to six to seven years in some cases. As a rule, pet rats live longer than rats in the wild.
Diet plays an important role. Pet rats are better taken care of with good food and snacks, ensuring that they live longer than the malnourished rats eating garbage.
Pet rats can enjoy exercise and avoid stress while being well taken care of. This causes them to live longer than the other types of rats. Pet rats are usually fancy rats Trusted Source Fancy rat - Facts, Diet, Habitat & Pictures on Animalia.bio Basic facts about Fancy rat: lifespan, distribution and habitat map, lifestyle and social behavior, mating habits, diet and nutrition, population size and status. animalia.bio and hairless rats.
Prolonging the life of your pet rat is possible with a healthy diet, a clean cage, and many chances for exercise.
Keep this in mind when looking at “how long do domesticated rats live?”
Both pet rats are low-maintenance, intelligent, and social pets with the same lifespan. A healthy fancy rat will live between two to three years, while a hairless rat lasts one to two years. They can live longer with proper care.
Now that we’ve covered the question “how long do rats live in captivity”, what about rats living in the wild?
Wild rats die earlier than pet rats since they have to search for food and survive in the environment. They live an average of one to two years due to the predators as well.
Wild rats face birds, cats, and even humans as we try to get rid of them with the best rat traps and the best rat poisons.
You can find wild rats in the country, or city, digging through your trash, staying on your roof and walls, and just being pests around your house. Using the best outdoor rat traps is an excellent choice to solve rodent problems.
Wild rats are usually brown or black, with coarse and oily fur that protects them from moisture and dirt. They are good swimmers and climbers that use their tails for balance, and their sharp incisor teeth are for chewing. They use the front paws for grooming.
You can find wild rats in large colonies, as they are highly sociable. They are considered pests because they carry germs and diseases into the home, like rat-bite fever Trusted Source Rat Bite: Pictures, Rat-Bite Fever, Treatment, and Complications Rat bites are usually very small, but they can pose serious health risks. Learn how to identify rat bites and ensure you don’t develop an infection. www.healthline.com , thus affecting humans. This is why it is always better to take preventive measures and use the Shake-Away Rodent Repellent.
Now that you know how the answer to the question “how long do fancy rats live”, you can focus on helping them live longer and happier. Some helpful tips include:
Rats’ main health problems, which usually lead to death, are respiratory contamination, cancer, and heart diseases.
How long do white rats live?
White rats have a life expectancy of two to three years. Fancy rats are the most popular white rats and can be used as pets.
How long do dumbo rats live?
A dumbo rat will live between two and three years on average. Even if you’re diligent in caring for a dumbo rat, you can only add a few months to its lifespan.
How long do rats live without food?
Rats can live up to two weeks without food, and they become even more dehydrated without food. Rats store their food elsewhere, making it easy to fall back on reserves when starving.
Now that you know the answer to the question “how long do rats live?”, you can understand how to take care of your pet rat so that it lives past the expected age. Rats have a short and interesting lifecycle and can function as pets in your home or pests you want to get rid of.
