The big "2"
Tale
:-D I haven't much to add, but I'm just so happy they've come this far, so I
wanted to share this with you guys.
A picture of C&C from this morning:
http://www.taletn.com/rats/20061007/chester-casey.jpg
Story of their birthday party so far:
http://www.taletn.com/rats/20061007/
BTW, if you want to congratulate them, please sign their guestbook *hint* at
http://www.taletn.com/rats/guestbook/ (or just reply to this post).
- Tale
--
"Oh, Rats!"
http://www.taletn.com/rats/
Dewi
Dewi.
Joanne
Aww... they are still looking so good! I know some age calculators will
say they are 60 in human years but to me, I think they are much older,
more like 70, since so many rats don't make it beyond 24 months.
You are certainly a great rattie daddy!!!
--
Joanne
Owned by 20 rats.
Webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanneb70
-------------------------------------------------------
~Ignorance is not innocence but sin. *Robert Browning*
Tale
> Happy Birthday to them.
Thanks! :-)
Tale
> Aww... they are still looking so good! I know some age calculators will
> say they are 60 in human years but to me, I think they are much older,
> more like 70, since so many rats don't make it beyond 24 months.
> You are certainly a great rattie daddy!!!
Thank you! :-)
Of course I hope that my rats will live way longer than avarage, but I yeah,
you're right. Chester is showing some signs of old age; he isn't that quick
and acrobatic anymore. However, Casey could well be only one year old; he
doesn't show any signs of aging yet. Of course, he's never been much of an
acrobat anyway... *grin*
Dewi
My vet, who specialises in rats and other "exotic animals" like
rabbits, told be that it is quite normal for rats to live to 3 or 3.5
years old. I'm not sure if he is being an optimist or if he's implying
that if you make the effort to look after them really well they can
quite frequently live for that long (assuming the rat doesn't have any
genetic prediposition to some disease). I hope he's right, because 3 of
my rats have reached the 2 year mark and I'd love them to live a long
life.
Dewi.
Joanne
Boy, I sure wish your vet was right. But I really don't believe this is
the norm. It seems now that if rats reach 2.5, then you are quite lucky
and if they do make it to 3... well, that would truly be a gift.
Dewi
He could be an optimist or trying to cheer me up becuase I was very
worried as Crackers was in to get a tumor removed (second time in 6
months) :( and then a week later Chutney went to see him because of
myco.
Dewi.
Mandie @k@ Zepherous
>>
>
> Boy, I sure wish your vet was right. But I really don't believe this is
> the norm. It seems now that if rats reach 2.5, then you are quite lucky
> and if they do make it to 3... well, that would truly be a gift.
>
> --
> Joanne
> Owned by 20 rats.
> Webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanneb70
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> ~Ignorance is not innocence but sin. *Robert Browning*
Guess I've been really lucky.
I lost my previous rat after post operative stress at just over 2.
(She hated to be handled and hated strangers so the stress must have been
too much)
Most of mine have lived to over 3 years old.
Dylan who was without a doubt the biggest rat I ever owned lived to 5 years
old
he survived 2 ops to remove tumours from just above his back left leg, but a
few months after
the ops developed a mass behind one of his eyes and I had to make the
decision to have him pts :-(
He hated other rats but loved all humans.
Joanne
Where are you located? I got to get me some rats from your area!!
Mandie @k@ Zepherous
>>
>>
>> Guess I've been really lucky.
>>
>> I lost my previous rat after post operative stress at just over 2.
>> (She hated to be handled and hated strangers so the stress must have been
>> too much)
>> Most of mine have lived to over 3 years old.
>> Dylan who was without a doubt the biggest rat I ever owned lived to 5
>> years old
>> he survived 2 ops to remove tumours from just above his back left leg,
>> but a few months after
>> the ops developed a mass behind one of his eyes and I had to make the
>> decision to have him pts :-(
>> He hated other rats but loved all humans.
>>
>>
>
> Where are you located? I got to get me some rats from your area!!
>
> --
> Joanne
> Owned by 20 rats.
> Webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanneb70
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> ~Ignorance is not innocence but sin. *Robert Browning*
I'm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
The boys I have now are from our local petstore and from the different
source than most of my previous.
The poor guys had to travel around 400 miles from England
to the store as they told me they don't use local breeders :-(
Dylan was from a litter from my very first rat a lot of years ago , he was
one of
14 all of who survived.
Art and Tar are around 14 months old now and doing well , I did think a
couple of times I
was going to lose Art due to what the vet and I now guess to have been
kidney or bladder stones,
I now test his urine daily and if the keytones and protein start to rise I
modify his diet to suit by upping the
carbohydrate in his diet.
Art is a bit smaller than Tar but eats a lot more, Art is 620g and Tar is
just over 800g, they are not fat infact Art is quite slim,
I'll get some new photos upped in the week so you can see how they are
doing.
Joanne
the pond.
Art and Tar pics will be great!!
Dewi
> I'm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
> The boys I have now are from our local petstore and from the different
> source than most of my previous.
> The poor guys had to travel around 400 miles from England
> to the store as they told me they don't use local breeders :-(
> Dylan was from a litter from my very first rat a lot of years ago , he was
> one of
> 14 all of who survived.
>
> Art and Tar are around 14 months old now and doing well , I did think a
> couple of times I
> was going to lose Art due to what the vet and I now guess to have been
> kidney or bladder stones,
> I now test his urine daily and if the keytones and protein start to rise I
> modify his diet to suit by upping the
> carbohydrate in his diet.
> Art is a bit smaller than Tar but eats a lot more, Art is 620g and Tar is
> just over 800g, they are not fat infact Art is quite slim,
> I'll get some new photos upped in the week so you can see how they are
> doing.
That's good of your vet to allow you to test your rats urine. My cats
have had crystals in their urine which is related to the pH of the
urine. I think I'll buy those test strips (which also check the pH) if
the problem arises again so that I can modify their diet accordingly.
800 g is big. I recently bought kitchen scales and my biggest rat
(Ginger) is 736g. He's far too roly-poly and I've put him on a
not-so-severe diet. I'm hoping we can get him down to 700g or so. My
other male (Zac) is a petite 440 g.
Dewi.
Tracey
"Tale" <ta...@martinic.nl.earth> wrote in message
news:4527a967$0$23339$ba62...@text.nova.planet.nl...
Happy belated birthday wishes for your two guys! I trust they had a good
day with all those treats!
Tracey
Tale
> Happy belated birthday wishes for your two guys! I trust they had a good
> day with all those treats!
Thanks! :-)
Tale
dramatically because of careless breeding. This would suggest that in
general carefully bred rats (from a rattery) would live longer than petshop
rats. However, I think luck also has a lot to do with it. If your rat's
ancestors all were pretty old when they died, *and* if your rat doesn't get
sick or anything, he may well live over 3 years.
Anyway, if Mandie's Dylan lived to 5 years, I don't see why my Dylan
wouldn't. :-) And Chester & Casey too, of course!
Tale
> 800 g is big. I recently bought kitchen scales and my biggest rat
> (Ginger) is 736g. He's far too roly-poly and I've put him on a
> not-so-severe diet. I'm hoping we can get him down to 700g or so. My
> other male (Zac) is a petite 440 g.
I've just weighed my boys again using my kitchen scale:
Chester: 680 grams
Casey: 630 grams
Mink: 570 grams
Dylan: 700 grams
I guess there's no need for diets at my end . :-)
Mandie @k@ Zepherous
"Tale" <ta...@martinic.nl.earth> wrote in message
You're look great, bright eyed and great coats, I'm sure they will have a
long and happy life :-)