Ep.32 How many babies can a family of rats have in a year?

Surely you’re curious or at least amused by the question we’re answering today in our “Myth or Fact” series: How many puppies can a family of rats have in a year? It’s an interesting piece of information to say the least that we found on the internet, and if you want to know the answer, we invite you to follow Mr. Alexandru Vladimirescu, PhD in biology and head of the medical entomology laboratory at the Cantacuzino Institute.

What are you curious about? Write us in the comments and we’ll ask the specialist for you!

Interview transcript

Today, together with our specialist, we are debating another myth that you have shared with us on our Facebook page, INFODDDD. The myth goes like this: a pair of rats can have 170 offspring in a year. Mr. Vladimirescu, is it a myth or a reality?

No, it’s reality. And if the conditions are optimal, I was reading the literature, of course, that it’s hard otherwise to make estimates like that, that a pair of rats, so male-female, can produce up to half a million offspring in a year.

Very much!

Yeah, which means a lot because they can give birth…, a female can give birth about 6 times in a year, and generally, on average, the maximum is 12 little rats. But… that’s the maximum, but on average it’s between 5 and 10. And then… of course, depending on the conditions, things are better or worse for us.