# Tumors and types of rats



## spanky (Nov 7, 2007)

I am a newbie to this forum and more ignorant than I thought about rats and their care. My rat is in the veterinarians office right now having a mammory tumor removed (benign) . 

Does anyone know of advice for aftercare. We love her.

I found out at that time, that rats of her type only have about a 3 year lifespan, which makes me sad.

I had a rat who lived to 10 and grew to the size of a house cat. Apparently we have a different breed/species . 

Does anyone know what I might have had?

Also we have another rat purchased at the same time as the other, is there anything we can do to avoid her from the same condition?


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

rats don't live to be 10, at best they will live to be 3 & on very rare occasions they might go further but the typical pet store rat will live approximately 2 to 3 yrs

unless I see a pic I couldn't guess but even the Gambian Pouch Rat doesn't live to be ten. They live to be 6 to 8 yrs old

***edited to add this link to an animated gif 
http://www.80stoysale.com/images/stormydance.gif

BTW... they aren't legal to have in the US anymore so if you have one of these awesome creatures.... MUMMMs the word... shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Spaying definitely lowers the risk of mammary tumors.

House cat sized rats do smack of Gambians, though the lifespan would be quite long.


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## ratcals (Oct 30, 2007)

Interesting story about Gambian Rats:

Hero Rats


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

spaying will reduce the risk of a hormonal tumor which is what most tumors are on females. the age of the rat when you have it done will dictate how great a reduced risk that is. though having it done at nearly any time in their lives will reduce the risk somewhat. the rule though is, the earlier the spay the greater the health benefits. your vet will be able to tell you how much the decreased risk will be if you can give him an approximate age of your rat.


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## spanky (Nov 7, 2007)

First of all I'd like to thank you for your help and advice.

I've heard contradictory advice on spaying here
http://www.ratbehavior.org/PregnancyAndMammaryTumors.htm

Is this unfounded? 

Also what should I feed her (aside from her usual food and treats) when she comes home

The Gambian rat thing sound interesting but unfortunatly won't load on my computer. I tried 3 times


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## spanky (Nov 7, 2007)

PS My rat was a few weeks old when I bought her I'd guess and we've had her since last Dec. so I'd say about a year


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

spanky said:


> First of all I'd like to thank you for your help and advice.
> 
> I've heard contradictory advice on spaying here
> http://www.ratbehavior.org/PregnancyAndMammaryTumors.htm
> ...


The pregnancy thing deals with hormones and milk production.

Spaying is more effective than pregnancy.


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## Darksong17 (Feb 11, 2007)

spanky said:


> I am a newbie to this forum and more ignorant than I thought about rats and their care. My rat is in the veterinarians office right now having a mammory tumor removed (benign) .
> 
> Does anyone know of advice for aftercare. We love her.
> 
> ...



As far as aftercare I'd be sure the vet provided pain meds and antibiotics after surgery. Watch her carefully to be sure she doesn't worry any stitches and keep her warm and well hydrated and all that. Also be sure to keep the cage extra clean to make sure the surgical site doesn't get infected.

There aren't different breeds of domestic rats. All domestic rats are the domesticated breed of Rattus norvegicus (the brown rat). They have an average life span of about two to two and a half years of age. That is about average, but it is possible for them to live a little bit longer (some reach three and possibly even four).

I find it very difficult to believe a domestic rat of yours lived to ten and got to the size of a house cat. As others have said, could it possibly have been a Gambian Pouched Rat? I know they are illegal in most places... and ten would really have been pushing it even for them.

As far as preventing mammary tumors your best bet is a spay. You can find more info on that here: http://www.petinfopackets.com/rats/rathealth.html#spayneuter


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## ration1802 (Sep 25, 2007)

My vet told me that he had a rat that lived to 7 or 8 (I'm not sure on the truth, just telling you what I was told) and that it's dependant on the genetics of the rats.

Apparently, there are 'pet rat' gene lines that live longer than the popular 'rubbish bin/pet shop' genes that have been so commonly interbred with most pet rats, even those purchased from breeders.

Again, this is what I've been told - I don't know the facts. Just thought I'd throw it in there


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

unlikely


The Guiness Book of World Records lists the record rat lifespan at 7 years 4 months

(not so sure if I would bet real money on Guiness being the most factual resource)


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## ration1802 (Sep 25, 2007)

I didn't know how credable it was, I've always assumed the "rats will live 2 to 3 years and any more is a blessing to be cherished" rule.


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## BlueSkyy (Sep 27, 2007)

i have had two betta fish hit the 5 year mark, Pretty and Paddles  and Paddles is still going strong! *knock on wood* they were both rescued from WalMart, but I keep them in 10 gallon tanks with full heating/filtration systems, which is a lot more than most people give a $3 betta fish.

so, i guess the whole point of me posting that is to show that with excellent care, even short-lived pets can live a lot longer than one would expect.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

its not always the treatment though. i've known a rat live in a overcrowed, undercleaned cage, on pine bedding, with pine urine soaked shelves being fed cheap hamster seed mix. he lived to be almost 6. 3 of his sons lived to be 4 in those conditions. a daughter of his, in a small hamster cage under the same treatment but alone also lived to 4. can you imagine if those rats had had proper care? had vet care even once? had the proper food? 

i know the chances of that is very rare and i was so mad at the person for keeping these rats in just horrid conditions but sometimes its really a matter of a windfall of chance genetics. of course proper care and attention will help prolong any natural lifespan. 

yet, even with the best possible care the average is still only 2-3 years. you can do everything right but the genetics just aren't helping you.


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## spanky (Nov 7, 2007)

Was finally able to open that video. Those rats looked a lot more like the one I used to have than the ones I have now. The ones I have now are Norwegian 
rats. My little girl had her surgery successfully and will be coming home today.
Why did they make Gambian rats illegal?


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

they haven't been domesticated long enough and are foreign to north america. in some places bunnies and ferrets are illegal because they are foreign to the land. if they were to get loose or their owners were to abandon them then they could cause havoc with the ecosystem balance of the area. i believe this happened in austriala with dingos and rabbits.


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## ration1802 (Sep 25, 2007)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/25/gambian_pouched_rat/

I don't know if that's the whole reason they were banned or not, just found it amid my searches


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

*from that article:*

_Wildlife officials have now begun to bait 1,000 rat-busting traps with peanut butter, almond extract, anise, and less appetising toxic zinc phosphide, hoping the animals will take a final meal and crawl off into their burrows to die.

But while Florida may soon be free of the Gambian pouched rat menace, it has other threats to face. In mid-April, officials captured an 8-foot (2.4-metre) Burmese python in a Key Largo state park, which had dined on two of around 500 remaining Key Largo wood rats - an endangered species. _

I find this to be a bit harsh " hoping the animals will take a final meal and crawl off into their burrows to die" & considering the damage that the released reptiles are causing... I also feel they are targeting the wrong animals with these bans. They say menace but I think they have truly overlooked the real menace that threatens the area.

I live in Florida, I'm a sixth generation native. I've captured & surrendered non-indigenous snakes & reptiles when I have found them close to home. I've had to chase iguanas off my porch (nearly impossible to catch) & out of places of business I have worked at. We had one fiasco where a 4 1/2 foot iguana entered our store from the loading docks & then slipped out onto the sales floor where dozens of customers ran shrieking from the store after the darn thing hissed & swatted at them. It took myself & 4 other team members not freaked out by this angry beast over 2 hours to catch, not to mention the hundreds of dollars in merchandise that was destroyed in the process.... yup, you guessed it... the crazy thing was found in the glassware department of the home decor store I managed.

Did anyone ever see the picture of the snake eating the alligator? This too was an animal that was once on the endangered species list. There are far less fierce animals than the alligator that live in the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades... can you imagine the unknown damage that is happening right now because of the reptiles that are not indigenous to this state, this country, that are running amok eating up animals, animals as fierce as an alligator? The mild creatures surely have no defense to them if these snakes & other reptiles are capable of taking down an alligator.

Really sad

(sorry, I know its off topic but this hits very close to home for me)


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

Wow, that was a great movie! Good for those rats, what a great solution for land mines. 

I've always heard about 2 to 3 years for rats, too. Betta fish, though, can very commonly live to five or six years with good care, though for most people 3 to 4 is more common. So I'm not sure a five year betta is a good analogy to an 8 year old fancy rat.


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

Er, not movie. Story, film clip, I guess I should say. People need to figure out that animals are just better than us at some things, like smelling, and it's great that they've figured out how to humanely use those talents.


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## mirror (Jul 29, 2007)

i'm not surprised that those poorly kept rats lived so long... poor diet (in particular calorie restriction) is well known to increase lifespan in a number of species. but its not a good life


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

that may have played a part in it but i still think they would haev gotten sick more often they did. they were never taken to the vet for treatment and though i cannot say exactly what killed them i would imagine it would be a URI. they are so common and the litter was always flithy and pine. i would think that they would have died from an untreated URI long before they did. in any case, they had amazing genes running through them to be able to survive for so long under those conditions.


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## spanky (Nov 7, 2007)

"They don't belong here and they need to be controlled. They could cause a lot of damage. They're a big rodent. They're not particularly attractive. I don't understand why anyone would want them as a pet. They're very messy animals."


What a horrible thing to say and I'll have you know that my rat was cute and not messy!

I guess it does sort of make sense though, I remember hearing about a tree snake from Guam destroying a huge amount of the wildlife in Hawaii. I think they should be punishing the guy who set them loose instead of the poor rats.


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## Darksong17 (Feb 11, 2007)

mirror said:


> i'm not surprised that those poorly kept rats lived so long... poor diet (in particular calorie restriction) is well known to increase lifespan in a number of species. but its not a good life


Poor diet and calorie restriction are very, very different things. A poor diet will certainly not increase a rat's or any other animal's lifespan. Quite the opposite. Calorie restriction however can indeed prolong lifespans and it isn't a cruel thing to do providing you do it right. If you know what you're doing and balance everything correctly there is nothing wrong with a restricted diet.


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