I have a new pet bat! The bat egg did work, and it did spawn in town, but, I'm wondering, will he despawn? Like if my res chunk is unloaded? I really don't want to buy another bat egg...
If you leave the res and come back he should stay, If your cage for the bat (bob) is opened or broke and you don't egg him, he will fly away and you have the possibility of losing him then... but as for just leaving the res and the chunk unloading, no - he's like other animals ... bat's don't despawn by leaving.
When you buy the bat egg from /shop it says next to the chest that the bat does NOT despawn in town. So you shouldn't worry about losing your bat. ( if your really worried about losing it you can just eggify your bat every time you leave, but frankly that would be a waste of time.)
I had many bats.. And Alex killed them. Please. Everyone. Hide yo bats Hide yo eggs Alexchance coming in here and killing all yo bats.