I need help with getting my pet rat?

Question

hey, i am going to get a pet rat and I'm int Toronto i checkout pet smart but they only had females and i want a male i checked the humane society and i saw a couple they looked a lot older then they said they were so here are my questions were in Toronto can i get a male rat as a pet besides the humane shelter because I'm going to check there anyway and how big are they at like 3months 5 years and a year and when do they stop growing? thx for your help

Answer 1

Rats become sexually mature and available to be taken home at about 5 weeks.  They reach adulthood and stop growing at about 6 months.  Females will go through menopause at about 18 months.  Rats only have an average lifespan of 2-4 years, and in my research online, most live closer to 2 than to 4.

"Adult bucks usually weigh 400-700g, does around 200-500g." (bucks = males, does = females)  It's important to not let your rat get too large as fat rats are usually more likely to get tumors and have other health issues (just like people).

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

rats can get pretty big, and they grow quickly. first of all, just so you know, i was recently in the same problem as you. i wanted a young male black rat. well, the rat i got brownish blackish grayish, looking like the rats you would find eating your garbage, and outrageously, the pet store people didn't know how old he was!   well, look for small pet stores around your area, like pet safari, places you might normally miss. and if you wait a while, petsmart will soon have new rats. at three months they might be about 5 or so inches, or maybe three or four. at a year they might be half a foot, but most rats don't get any bigger.  and the reasons the ones at the humane society looked old is probably because they were either strays, who lived a hard life(although then the humane society could only guess around their age) or they were there because owners didn't want them, meaning they still wouldn't be well cared for, and the owners may have lied about age. but if you get one at the humane society, you would be saving a life, because the humane society isn't humane, and they put animals to sleep just because no one buys them! but its your choice.  and some societies are okay. and rats live up to seven years! i know friends who had two rats. one of them had a tumor, and she still lived to five years! the other died a year later. and remember-don't trust all websites! especially not wikipedia. even things that look good on that website might be someone writing things that look true, so they are ignored, or people editing it could be wrong.

Answer 3

I would appreciate if you would check my site out so that you care for your rat properley.  I dont like it when poeple get pets that they dont know about, there is a lot more then you would first think about when getting one, so please check out my site to be sure you know what you are getting into, thenks

http://guineapigsfriends.blogspot.com/