Thank you, jorats and bluerose!
I noticed you folks in Canada seem to have healthier, longer-lived rats than we have down here. When I took my boy Nick to an exotic vet a few years ago, at age 2 yrs, 3 mos, she was impressed. She said with rats, every day past 2 is a gift. I have found this to be true. With the best care I can possibly give them, my oldest rats have been 2 yrs, 9 mos and 2yrs, 10 mos, but most have not seen 2. I'd love to get some healthier rats and know others would as well. How long do they typically live for you, Canadian friends?
To my knowledge, the average lifespan of rats is probably close to 2 to 2.5 years old - but I thought this was true across North America ….. it seemed to be several years ago but may be closer to 2 years now.
My rats usually live more then 2 years (often 2.5 or higher) and I have had a couple that lived past 3 years
and I believe that Jorats had a girl that lived to 4 years
It is important to note that this is a rescue forum and my rats are rescues, not bought from breeders (whose rats do not seem to be healthier despite their claims). Rescue rats are rats being rehomed and here they originated from pets store rats (bred in large mills) or backyard breeders, or their parents did ….. so they do not necessarily have a great genetic backgrounds.
Rats used to live much, much longer but their lifespan has been decreasing over the last 50 years despite advances in health care and diet.
If our rats are living longer then it may be that the people on this forum tend to do their best to provide healthy food (I see rats on facebook being fed all sorts of unhealthy and disease causing things) and we tend to provide our rats with prompt medical care. This forum and it's members also tend to have high standards for rat care, much higher then the standards promoted by some people in the USA such as Debbie Ducommun. All of this makes a huge difference to health, happiness and lifespan of each individual rat.
In my area of the country, heart problems are very common in rats but this is often not diagnosed.
I don't think our rats necessarily have better genetics (some rats have more genetic health issues then others, even in the same litter) ……… diet, environment, spaying & neutering, and prompt medical care can all make a big difference to a rat's health and lifespan.
For example, a couple of us have noticed that when girls are spayed young, we rarely see pituitary tumours.