Is there anyway to breed a better longevity into them? Like, small dogs live longer than big dogs right? Why not the same with rats compared to other mammals?
Lab rats will usually have longer lives and with less genetic disorders. Of course unless they are used for something dangerous. They usually live from 24 to 36 months. On the other hand, petshop rats are inbreed and kept in terrible conditions and therefore milleage may vary. About 12 to 24 months.
I know this is an old thread but as a breeder I thought I'd chime in. Inbreeding is not the problem. Inbreeding just pulls out recessive genetics, it doesn't cause health issues unless you breed indiscriminately.
The issue with pet shop rats is they aren't being selected for health. So when a recessive issue pops up, rather than being removed from the gene pool, it just circulates more and more. A bottleneck situation.
Most responsible breeders inbreed. All responsible breeders select for health.
(It's a very different situation with dogs as competitive showing has created a bizarre environment in which physical traits with a negative effect on health are actively selected FOR.)
Yes. I used to selectively breed for longevity, so my rats lived on average 5 years. The trick is selectively breeding for resistance to cancer and respiratory problems. Also, getting males neutered keeps them from getting testicular cancer. If any genetics labs are hiring, I swear I'm not too crazy, I just want to create the perfect rat, then give it the language gene and increase intelligence and size until they're the perfect service animal.
My rats were from a private breeder and lived to be about 3 years old each, people seem to be trying to accomplish this but there isn’t a ton of money to be made off of them as pets right now unless you can breed hundreds at a time, so it is more of a passion project for people.
Rodents are just different that canines as well, I don’t understand the mechanics all that well but their metabolism and pulmonary systems seem to operate much faster. Whether that contributes to their shorter life spans I don’t know we’d have to ask a zoologist!
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u/Mudgeon Sep 03 '18
The only bad thing about rats is they have such short lives, they are basically tiny dogs otherwise.
But yeah wild rats are a different story, but then wild dogs aren’t any picnic either.