Oldest rat had a bad litter...suggestions?

[Dom]

Im very interested in the age thing .. How old is the eldest rat ever?? So I imagine a 3 yo rat is over 100?

Just to put my 2 cents ..

I only have Owned one pet rat .. his name is Algernon .. a big 2+ yo male that has been enpregnating females everyday! I had him as a pet before i even decided to breed my rats .. he now has the fun job of playing with the girls all his life! lol - lucky man!

When he dies, believe it or not .. I will burry him - sounds stupid but I really am too attached to him and could not feed him even if he died of old age ..

But except for him - all my other rats are food - once done reproducing .. or too old .. feeders the are!

[rattekonigin]

I'm pretty sure the oldest rat ever was 6 years old...I don't know exactly where I got that fact, but it was on some fancy rat breeder's web site. Needless to say, I'm quite the rat buff and before my more recent interest in herps I spent much of my time reading up on the little fur-balls.

[patricia]

Almost all of my breeders are also pets.

My eldest male is Horace. He's now a little over two years, and still siring babies. Horace is a ruby-eyed beige. The eldest female is his sister, Lady-Rat, also a ruby-eyed beige, as are all of their children: Swifty & Fidget (girls), Benjamin (boy) and Buddy (neuter). Swifty bred back to Horace produced Honey.

My younger foundation male is a black hooded, named Simon. His kids from Swifty & Fidget are all black (with little patches of white on their bellies, and white toes), and include: Cornelius, Tar-baby, and Tessa. Tessa bred back to Simon produced George, Thomas & Lucy (all black hoodeds, like Simon), and the Albino Twins (identical pink-eyed white females).

Cornelius & Tar-baby have produced one litter in which the babies were 75% blacks, and 25% black hoodeds. The Albino Twins are presently expecting babies sired by Benjamin. Honey has a ten-day-old litter of babies sired by Horace.

I always give names to the ones that I'm keeping as breeders. Those that end up as dinner (about 97% of the progeny) never get names.

[Gorelith]

I did name one of my rats but I fed him to Orion last week, was debating keeping him as a pet but thought about vet bills and it was time to feed the balls. All in all, that's all I keep them for. May sound cold but I can't risk getting attached to a rodent, my snakes could end up starving, can't have that.

[rattekonigin]

Not getting attached is probably the best way to go, even if I wanted to raise feeder rats I wouldn't be able to kill them, 2+ years of keeping them as pets has caused me to go soft...I probably wouldn't even be able to kill mice (though I have a much lower opinion of those stinkers)

[patricia]

Well, one has to draw a line as to how attached one is willing to become. A rat isn't a dog. Where I'd spend plenty for vet care of my dog, I'm not prepared to spend that money on a rat. If a rat has lived over two years, and been healthy and happy for all that time, and then its health starts seriously deteriorating, it surely isn't going to live for more than a few additional weeks no matter how much vet care it is given. That is the point at which I humanely kill it.

Horace is by far my favourite rat, and I'll certainly be sad to see him go. But one has to be realistic. Snakes can live for decades, rats can only live lives that are a fraction of that time. So, even the most-loved rats eventually wind up as dinner. But they do get to live as long and as well as possible until that point is reached.

I'm not saying that it is easy. But it is necessary and practical.

[marisa]

I would also be 100% ready to spend quite a large amount of money to get vet care for my dogs or iguana, or snakes, buit I'd be less willing, if willing at all to spend a large amount on a rat or mouse favorite I might have.

I dunno. sounds mean but it doesnt feel mean.

marisa