# When do young rats stop growing?



## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

I've always wanted to know...when do young rats generally get done with all their growth spurts and reach their final size?

My babies are both around 4 mo, give or take a few weeks (LouLou is a few weeks older).

But lately Mocha has been getting a TON bigger. Not fat, she's actually really slim. She's just...becoming a very long, big girl, outgrowing LouLou even though she's younger. If LouLou has any growth spurts left I'd be surprised. She's been about the same size for quite a few weeks so I'm wondering if she's just going to stay small.

Mocha's sudden growth spurt took me by total surprise. For the longest time she was always so tiny and now it's like she's growing rapidfire. I hope she's not going to try to be a bully, but I have a feeling like she'll be my alpha female. It's her personality type. She's been ecstatic to meet LouLou (keeps pawing through the bars of her cage whenever LouLou is up and about.) First intro on neutral ground is going to be this friday....I hope everything goes okay.


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## Drowsy (Oct 23, 2012)

I think this must be their last big growth spurt. Rats are full grown at around six months. c:


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm pretty sure rats grow right through healthy adulthood. After a certain point the growth gets very slow and darn near unnoticable but at even over a year old, I've seen new pink tail tips on my girl rats. My 9 month old has grown since she was 7 month's old and my 19 month old is longer than my 9 month old. 

I think it's actually nearly impossible to tell exactly when a rat stops growing if it ever does, due to the elastic nature of it's spine. Our younger rat can look pretty small when she sits there, but then when she stretches out full length she gets considerably bigger. Maybe at a certain point the spine gets less elastic and the rat just looks longer all of the time. 

As rats can get pretty fat it's unfair to measure growth by weight. Mature rats tend to fatten up after a year old but that doesn't mean they are actually growing respectively longer, just wider and rounder.


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## Drowsy (Oct 23, 2012)

Oh wow, good to know Rat Daddy, thanks!


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I've found most rats have most of there length at about 6 to 9 months, however they often continue to bulk out and grow into themselves passed 12 months old. I still catch them having the odd growth spurt at this age, though not as noticeable unless you know the signs to look for.


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

Thank you everyone for all of the helpful information! It's very much appreciated!


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## CrazyRatLady (Oct 20, 2012)

I noticed that my first two rats, Raevin and Calypso (who are almost one year old) got really long first and then started to get fat, now they're round little fatties, though they're still very long. My four month olds are growing noticeably longer, I assume soon enough they'll stop getting really long and start to fatten up some like their bigger cagemates.


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