# Growth Charts?



## Ratologist (Nov 24, 2016)

Does anyone know of growth charts available for fancy rats? I've seen the chart at ratbehavior.org of just the three male rats, and I've seen the chart in the article "Nutrient Requirements of the Laboratory Rat" (based on research from 1972). Is there anything more recent with a larger sample size?


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

As in weights?

Honestly there can't really be a helpful one. Weight can differ a whole lot! I kindof like to compare weight in rats to height in humans, in that it can differ a bunch. Someone can be 5'2 & someone else 6'5. That is a big difference!

Some rats are much bigger and others are just petite. And on top of that alot of people end up with overweight rats so that doesn't help give examples!
In a breeder group I am in we were just comparing some of our rats and it was crazy the differences! Some saying 450g and others says 650g! That is a big difference!

Around 6-9 months they often reach fully grown in size.

What are you trying to find out exactly?


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## Ratologist (Nov 24, 2016)

Just curious. Once I saw one growth chart I got curious about whether there were others. The patterns are what interest me - like when does the greatest growth happen? When does growth slow down? Do they really ever stop growing? Along those same lines, I was already wondering about what you mentioned above: does weight really tell us much? Is there a better measurement of growth for rats?


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

They grow the most and fastest the first few months of their life. By 3/4 months they begin to slow down a bit. And then by usually 6-9 months they hit their full grown rat, as in skeleton growth. Weight also means fat, so a rat could continue to put on fat after that and weigh more ofcourse!

Females tend to slow down growth earlier.

Rats grow really crazy fast as babies. I mean they start off as tiny little pinkies and in four months could weigh 200-300g or more.

Weight just doesn't tell us the whole picture. For example breeders will wait to breed a female until after 4-6 months old, but also until 250g-300g. So around that age/weight is what we are shooting for. But it is going to differ for every rat individually. 
It is good to keep track of a rats weight, so you can not changes. 

But if you are trying to see if a rat is growing well I'd look at their over all form. 
If weight is way off the mark it can help to judge dwarfs, sickly or developmentally stunted. I have a female who was a runt and barely survived and fully grown she is like 175g I think last time I weighed her! 

if you really wanna do some reading lol 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3733029/

It is very interesting. If you scroll down to the part that says: "when are rats considered adult?" that pretty much discusses what I said. Though they do say rats reach fully grown at 7-8 months. I still like to say 6-9 months personally for our pets.


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## Ratologist (Nov 24, 2016)

Super interesting! Thank you!


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