How many baby African grass rats are in a litter?
A African grass rat (Arvicanthis niloticus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 12 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 21 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 4 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 5.8 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Arvicanthis). An adult African grass rat grows up to a size of 9.5 cm (0′ 4″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The African grass rat (Arvicanthis niloticus) is a species of rodent in the family Murinae.
Other animals of the family Muridae
African grass rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Siberian brown lemming with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Setzer’s pygmy mouse weighting only 6 grams
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Isarog striped shrew-rat weighting only 140 grams
- Fawn hopping mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- White-toothed brush mouse raching a size of 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Northern grasshopper mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Flat-headed vole with 6 babies per pregnancy
- White-throated grass mouse weighting only 42 grams
- Chaco grass mouse weighting only 51 grams
Animals that share a litter size with African grass rat
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Townsend’s chipmunk
- Botta’s pocket gopher
- Creek groove-toothed swamp rat
- New Holland mouse
- Atherton antechinus
- Kemp’s gerbil
- Lesser short-tailed gerbil
- Panamint chipmunk
- Spinifex hopping mouse
- Parantechinus bilarni
Animals with the same weight as a African grass rat
What other animals weight around 95 grams (0.21 lbs)?
- Malayan mountain spiny rat weighting 90 grams
- Big-eared swamp rat weighting 95 grams
- Goliath shrew weighting 87 grams
- Thomas’s Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Ghana rufous-nosed rat weighting 85 grams
- Coruro weighting 101 grams
- Plain brush-tailed rat weighting 105 grams
- Sage’s rock rat weighting 96 grams
- Rio de Janeiro arboreal rat weighting 93 grams
- European mole weighting 86 grams