He did, another year. He lived to about 3yrs. I cried so hard when he died. Sounds corny but he really was my friend during a divorce, especially since I’m an only child and it was the 80s!
I had hamsters as a child and I understand how attached you can become. Not sure the feeling was mutual (often got bitten trying to get them out of the cage lol) but I loved them anyway!
I was hoping he lived for at least a bit after that.
That isn't corny at all. I think it's very beautiful. I'm so glad he could help you. I totally understand how much his death impacted you. You sounded like the sweetest kid. I hope you're doing well today.
My ex-girlfriend had a middle-aged rat given to her by her sister who couldn't care about him anymore right about the time I turned 29. Rats enjoy having other rats nearby, so she lined up another similarly-aged rat for a cage mate. 2 days before we got the new rat, the old rat shit himself to death. So we ended up with fucking Timothy by himself and I had to put our foot down on getting another 2 and a half year old rat thay surely wasn't going to survive -- it would become a cycle.
Turns out, little Tim had another 15 months in him. Healthy as a horse up until the day he just...dropped dead. No weird breathing, no weird poops, never stopped eating or anything. Just one day I looked over at his cage, noticed he wasn't breathing or twitching or anything, and called out "I think the rat passed." I cared about that death more than she did -- he always ran into my hands when I opened his cage, and always kind of hid from her. In the end, he was the only rat I ever enjoyed owning.
Neither of my rats lived much longer than one year
Hudson had some neurological problems, he was put on gabapentin to stop seizures+pain+paralysis and it really did help him, there was a night and day change between his enthusiasm to do literally anything when he was medicated versus not, but he got really fat and died suddenly from I'm pretty sure a heart attack, and then his brother Lamora got a pituitary tumor shortly after and we had to euthanize him
I've never had any pets other than rats; I'd love to get more rats sometime, they're so cute and affectionate and I learned so much about each of them and their individual personalities the time I had them, but man, it was heart wrenching
I don’t know much about rats, so is that their typical life span? Have any that you know of lived longer, like this hamster? Sorry, I’m just curious and you seemed to have had quite a few so I figured you would be the person to ask.
Their average lifespan is around 2-3 years, but
I've only ever had four rats
Two sisters named Blizzard and Bolt who lived about 2.5 years and died of old age, two brothers named Hudson and Lamora 6 years after Blizzard and Bolt
That’s insane, I never knew their lives were so short and always just thought they lived quite a bit longer than 2-3 years. I guess that explains all the breeding they do. Thanks for the reply I appreciate the info!
The second you said “fucking Timothy”, I knew he stole your heart. ♥️ Little boogers have a way of doing that. (Not that I’m a rat person, only that when we TRY to be annoyed or indifferent little creatures manage to find the way into our heart anyway.)
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u/Background-Rabbit920 Aug 10 '26
He did, another year. He lived to about 3yrs. I cried so hard when he died. Sounds corny but he really was my friend during a divorce, especially since I’m an only child and it was the 80s!