Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey there!
I live way out in the boonies and have several outside animals (horses, dogs, rabbits, turkeys, etc...). Anytime you have outside animals you can almost bet that there are a few wild rats around to clean up leftover feed.

I keep my rats in a room converted from a garage. The room is also used to store a few things. My rats are in tanks with homemade wooden tops that has 1/2-inch wire mesh.

Every now & then my wife will leave the outside door open while she goes in/out throughout the day, or to let it air out a bit. The other day a wild rat snuck in.

When I went to take care of my rats later that evening, as soon as I opened the door and flipped on the light I saw nothin but a gray flash scurrying from the tops of two tanks and it went under an old piano. I thought to myself, "Dang, that sucker was fast! I've never seen one move that fast before."

There was a fair amount of blood splatter on the two tank tops it was on. Inside those tanks were mom/babies rats. It appeared that the rat had scratched so hard trying to get to them that he started bleeding.

I've had a rat or two get out before but have never had one do anything like this or run so dang fast. I'm thinking that something strange is going on but not sure yet what it is.

About the time I bent down to look under the piano for the rat my wife came in. I could barely see the rat but it was dark and could only make out its outline. I told my wife to go get me my son's BB gun while I kept an eye on it.

My son brought the the BB gun to me and I shot the rat in the neck area and it came out from under the piano, barely moving. It stopped at my feet and I assumed it was dying, 'cause it sure looked like it.

Well, boys being boys, my son wanted to shoot it, so I figured it would be good to let him shoot it in the head to make sure it wasn't suffering, to go on & finish it off. Well, he shot it, the rat moved a few inches forward & layed there, breathing slower & slower.

I left it there in the floor for the time being and went about my business. I forgot about it until the next day. When I went to throw it out, it was gone. I figured my wife must've thrown it out. She said she didn't mess with it so me & my son looked high & low for it but couldn't find it.

Last night, two days after the rat was shot, I opened the door to the room to turn the light off & glanced at my rat cages. Even though everything looked alright I had one of those weird feelings that something wasn't right.

I looked 'em over again and then remembered I had one tank with mom/babies on the floor a few feet away. Looking over at it I see the wild rat sitting on top of the tank's top. I couldn't believe it. I would have sworn that thing was dead.

I could see that it couldn't move around very good so I walked over to it and grabbed it by the tail and slammed it onto the concrete floor, all in one quick motion.

It was a female and I've been trying to figure out why it wanted to get into the tanks with mom/babies in them. There ware two 40-gallon community tanks that are more easily accessible. Feed wasn't an issue, either, as there was a swept-up pile of seed in the floor left untouched. The only thing I can figure is she wanted some babies. Weird.

Given the amount of blood she lost trying to get into the two tanks, whatever it was she wanted, she wanted it pretty darn bad.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

With all the rats I raise I still hate wild rats.
I used to work in a pet store that had a means for outside beasties to get in and often we were trapping wild rats. The wild ones would regularly try to get in with the domestics and our thought was it was after the food, or the fresh meat, or territory....Either way it would chew off tails and feet and kill pups if it could reach them.
That and growing up on a farm....we had rats in the chicken/pig barn. We would sit with a .22 rifle and plink at them. They could move faster than the shot could get them. That and move with a remarkable number of hits. TOUGH animals. My uncle lives on a water way and the bigger rats that got in his cellar would stick out from under 2X8s He shot one once with a 45 caliber hand gun and the dang thing ran off. Blood all over and it still made it through a hole in the wall.
Yup, I hate rats.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

> > > "My uncle lives on a water way and the bigger rats that got in his cellar would stick out from under 2X8s He shot one once with a 45 caliber hand gun..."

LOL! We might be kin. That sounds like somethin' some of my kin folk would do. Ha! Ha!

I know one thing, this rat was definitely on a mission, and flat out determined to git r done.

I'm pretty well convinced she was after the babies, and I've got a hunch it was so she could take care of 'em. You know, like our feeders do.

But then again, it may have been one of Willard's.

Catch ya later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

i have a small rat collection and always wonder if i would be attracting outdoor rodents? i always have my back door cracked an 1/8 of an inch to allow air flow? do they attract other rodents?

I've read on pet rat forums that domestic rats tend to keep wild rats away. People even have used dirty pet rat bedding as a deterrent and they claim it works. Like the rats smell that the territory is occupied and move on.

That's interesting.

Thanks!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

I'd have to say, "No, domestic rats don't attract wild ones." Now, that's based on what I've seen here at my house, and merely MY opinion.

What attracts wild rats is food left on the ground; dog food, cat food, horse feed, and I've even seen some eating my rabbits' pellets. Figure that one out.

I'll try to keep this short but I feel this story is important in proving my theory on attraction.

My wife & kids started getting lazy & sloppy in feeding the dogs & horses when I was too busy to do so. My wife got the great idea (rolling my eyes) of getting a big plastic storage box & dumping a whole bag of dog food at a time in it. Before long dog food & horse feed was laying on the ground just about everywhere you looked.

A few weeks later we started seeing a rat here, a rat there, running from the dog food bin my wife came up with. The dog food bin sat right next to the door of my rat room and I never had one go in or scratch at the door. Granted, when there's a free smorgasboard like my wife created, why would they go any place else?

In the 2 1/2 years I've had my rats, this one psychopath female is the only one I've had come in. She must've had a miscarriage and went off the deep end, OR, postpartum blues.

All I can say is this thing flat out had some kind of determination! To be shot twice to where it could barely move but yet crawl another 15ft, get on top of another cage with mom/babies in it and try to get into the cage. I wouldn't have let the thing suffer, if I wasn't sure it was dying fairly quickly I would have done the right thing & put it out of its misery. I'd a put money on it that it was as good as dead. I'm still amazed & puzzled over it.

As long as you keep the floor of your rodent room clean & there's not feed laying around outside, I'd venture to say that you've got nothing to worry about. I would close the door before sunset, though.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American