I really want a few ratties as pets, but I can't deal with how short their lives are.
My rat Zoomer was born over a year before covid hit and he's still zoomin'. :blob-no-thoughts:
But his brother (littermate) isn't. :sadness: So your point still stands.
Oh wow, what kind of rat is he? That’s a really long life for most rats
He's a (neutered) black and white hooded. I gave him a mini cupcake twelve days ago to celebrate his third birthday. Since he became an old man rat he likes to sleep in bed with me snuggled inside my t-shirt or between my legs. My cat, Simon, is also very affectionate towards Zoomer and grooms him a lot (which is probably my favorite thing to watch ever).
I've heard first hand accounts of rats that live past four but that's probably like 1 out of 100 rats.
Oh yeah so just a normal domestic rat! Wow that’s really impressive. I work with rats doing aging research and I don’t see a lot make it past 3 years. He’s so damn cute, I love rats.
I work with rats doing aging research
Neato. Can you create a drug or gene for me that makes rats live for 20 years? Please and thank you. I can venmo you $20 for the R&D. :blob-no-thoughts:
I don’t see a lot make it past 3 years.
I think Zoomer's proclivity for exercise has helped his longevity. I give him a lot of space and time to free roam and enrich himself, and I imagine that's really difficult to do in a laboratory setting where you need to work with a large volume of rats to get reliable population data.
But three years is pretty rare for me too. Zoomer is only the second rat I've had to have made it past that age, out of maybe a dozen rats I've had for which I know their exact DOB.
The one thing I know from my research stuff is to not let them just eat as much as they want whenever they want. Calorie restriction and delays between feeding seem to help a lot, I saw one study that feeding them a large amount every other day instead of every day increased lifespan a lot. The calorie restriction one is more important though, the ones who have free access to infinite food do so much worse in every metric.
if they lived longer they'd probably be writing messages to us by year 10.
That's funny because I have (and have had) several ratties as pets and I can't deal with how short their lives are lol.
It's not fair. :kitty-cri:
But then the only thing that heals the pain is a new rat. It's an endless cycle of joy and love and heartbreak. To have loved and lost, etc. They are tourists on this world and their departure date is set in stone. All I can do is make their visit as pleasant beautiful as possible. :kitty-cri-texas:
It's not just that, but to ensure they don't die miserably you're looking at a pretty pricey exotic pets vet bill every time they get sick lol
And increasingly pricey every year. All the independent clinics are being bought up by hedge funds, so pretty soon only PMCs will be able to afford pets (if that's not the case already). :porky-happy:
this is genuinely useful as it will help me avoid getting attacked by one of the wild rats
I'm only worried about scared rats to be honest as animals are mainly dangerous when they're scared
Just carry around some violife in your pocket as an offering, and you will have safe passage through the Byzantine subterrain
I love it when you remove the lid from a box of sleeping rats and they all look up with that cute, confused sleepy face with their chompers dorkily visible.
That's why I'm Sleepy Rat.
Rats boggle their eyes when they're happy, looked SO weird when I first saw it. I thought something was wrong with it, turns out it was just super happy and relaxed.
