Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After I began raising rats for my own use, I found it would be useful to me to know their growth rates, so I could plan ahead for the feeder rats I would need for the different sizes of animals I was feeding.
I then began to weigh litters of rats to get their average of weights and began to keep track of those weight records for future reference.
The rats were fed Purina Dog Food and as much as they wanted.
The following are the ages and average of weights I came up with, I thought they may be of use to others.

Day 1 / DOB - 9 grams
Day 2 -
Day 3 - 12 grams
Day 4 - 14 grams
Day 5 -
Day 6 -
Day 7 - 19 grams

Week 1 - 19 grams
Week 2 - 38 grams
Week 3 - 77 grams
Week 4 - 92 grams
Week 5 - 111 grams
Week 6 - 148 grams
Week 7 - 176 grams
Week 8 - 224 - 268 grams

but weight also depends on the animals sex!..

males grow bigger, faster, and overall are a much larger adult animal than a female rat.

I have several 10-10 week old breeder male rats who are in the 300-400 gram range already. They grow like WEEDS!..

dan

Thanks for the feedback Sartori, your posts are always a good source of information.

I would agree, there are a lot of variables to their weight gains, but I was needing a rough idea of their average weight gain to anticipate the needs of my reptiles.

I only tracked their weight gains for a 8 week period, because they were within the range / size, I needed for my animals at that time.

However I believe if I had continued tracking their growth rates, they would have probably been within the 300 gram range at 10 weeks, due to their average gain of 28 and 48 grams in their 7th and 8th weeks.

I believe litter size also has an effect on their growth rates,
at least during their first few weeks.

I once placed 2 newborn babies with a mother and within about a 10 day period, they looked liked fuzzy golfballs and had gained about 2 - 3 times their normal rates.

>>Thanks for the feedback Sartori, your posts are always a good source of information.
>>
>>I would agree, there are a lot of variables to their weight gains, but I was needing a rough idea of their average weight gain to anticipate the needs of my reptiles.
>>
>>I only tracked their weight gains for a 8 week period, because they were within the range / size, I needed for my animals at that time.
>>
>>However I believe if I had continued tracking their growth rates, they would have probably been within the 300 gram range at 10 weeks, due to their average gain of 28 and 48 grams in their 7th and 8th weeks.
>>
>>I believe litter size also has an effect on their growth rates,
>>at least during their first few weeks.
>>
>>I once placed 2 newborn babies with a mother and within about a 10 day period, they looked liked fuzzy golfballs and had gained about 2 - 3 times their normal rates.

I have had one litter of rats that out grew the size of adult mice in by the eighth day of life. This litter was a small litter and only had seven babies. Therefore, each of the babies in the small litter got plenty of milk. Another litter that had thirteen babies in it grew much slower.

Here is a pic of an eight day old rat compared to a one month old mouse. You can see that the rat hasn't gotten all his hair yet. Yet, it is bigger than the mouse!

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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.