smudge

Question
QUESTION: He is so cute!!! He looks alot like Jasmine. I'm glad that he is able to get around ok and everything. Is there a certain way to be able to tell how old a rat is?? I would really like to try and find out how old Jasmine is but no one seems to know.


Holly   ANSWER: Usually by their size you can tell, but not always.

Also if their fur turns gray if they have daker fur, thats a good way to tell. My black rats are pushing three and they have white fur throughout and they used to be dark black all the way through.

Here is a photo of a wild rat I rescued She lived to be almost 4 yrs old  



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I would think by Jasmine's size she would be about two or so but I can't be sure. She is albino and there isn't a differnce in the color of her fur anywhere. The only color she has is on her nose. Her nose is a light brown-ish color. How long to rats usually live? I know their life span isn't too long. Holly, is very cute. She looks so small! It's adorable!


Fermie my 2.5lb boy!   ANSWER: Holly was a wild rat that I rescued. Note her longer snout and more pointy head. Her eyes were even more protruding and slanted and her tail was extra long. She used to bite the daylights out of me and so I had to trust train her. After that she was awesome, although did not get along with other rats.

Rats live usually up to 3 and over 3 years old if they are lucky enough to be healthy and have good genes. Average is from 2.5 to 4 years old but people lose rats of all ages.

Your rat was either a siamese or himalayan rat. Yes they have pedigrees. I am not good with the names of certain rats though but if she looks like Smudge she is siamese.



Have you seen my website?

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/index.htm

I have several photos of my rats on there, including my one eyed boy, Santana.

 Here is a photo of my largest male I have ever had. His name was Fermie and He weighed over 2.5lbs but he wasnt fat, he was solid muscle.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes, I found your website last night and was reading up on alot of the stuff you have there. It was all very helpful. I am glad I found you online and am able to look up this stuff.

I can't believe how short he life span of a rat is. It is very sad to think they don't like all too long. I noticed the diet listes you had on your website and I am going to go out later today and get some of those things and start feeding it to Jasmine and try to keep her as healthy as possible. Is there a certain way to change a rats diet or will it not bother them to just switch it one day? I don't want to make her sick. I know with my horse I need to change it over seven days or so.

From what I saw in the picture of Smudge, Jasmine looks identical to him. The computer or website, one of them wont let me look at the picture again but they seemed to have the same head, eyes, and nose. I think they look cute with the brown-ish color on their noses.

Fermie is so big. I don't doubt that he was all muscle! Did he just grow up that way or did he run around and do alot of stuff to get that big?

Answer
The picture is back ,must have been the server down.  ANyhow, he just was a big boy, period.  He and his brothers were all large. Most of my boys were big with the exception of two that were neutered. The neutering stunted their growth. As for changing their diet, you can change without weaning unlike a dog or cat or even a horse.

A horse huh?  I know nothing about them other than they are tall and beautiful and I am a bit shy of them.