Fun Rat Facts!
- Rats can swim (and have been observed holding their breath for up to 3 minutes!)
- Rats can’t throw up
- They talk to each other with such high-pitched squeaks that we can’t hear a lot of their sounds, but they can also learn to “talk” to us humans with squeaks that we are able to hear.
- They use their tails to hold on, balance, talk to each other, and regulate their body temperatures.
- Rats can’t sweat like humans or pant like dogs – their tails are for this!
- They’re naturally nocturnal, but they’ll purposely adjust their schedules to spend time with us humans when we are awake during the day.
- Rats live 1-3 years on average, but the oldest living rat recorded was named Rodney and he lived to be 8 years old!
- Rats come in a wide variety: they come with regular fur, hairless, with just some patches of fur, long-haired and even with curly fur! They also come in different sizes. My biggest rat weighs in at just under 2-lbs and my smallest is only 185 grams!
- Dwarf rats were originally discovered in a laboratory – and as adults are only 1/3 the size of regular rats.
- The Karni Mata Temple in India is home to over 20,000 rats and nobody is allowed to harm them! You can find more info on this, here.
- Some of the first animals to space were rats, launched in 1961 from France.
- Queen Victoria is rumored to have kept rats as pets.
- Ancient Romans believed that a white rat crossing your path was good luck, but a black one (much like the superstition of black cats, here) was a bad omen.
- A group of rats is called a mischief (such as a pack of dogs, a flock of birds, etc)
- You can teach rats tricks such a hide-and-seek and tag. They can also learn to find scents – in fact, the Giant Gambian Pouched rats are often trained and work as bomb-detection animals – saving human lives every year. Their slight weight doesn’t detonate bombs, so they don’t get hurt during these missions – even though they are much bigger than domestic pet rats (weighing in at up to 15-lbs – so the size of a large housecat cat!)
- Rats can be litter-box trained and can even be taught to walk on a leash!
- Rats can jump 2 feet in the air – 3 feet if they have a running start. That’s like a human jumping onto a garage roof!
- Rats’ teeth never stop growing; which is one of the reasons they are such avid chewers.
- Rats are only pregnant for 21 days - and can get pregnant again the day after giving birth.
- Baby rats are called pups or kittens – but lots of rat people loving refer to them as rittens or bRats.
- Rats are very clean animals – even cleaner than cats!
- Rats take care of sick or injured members of their mischief.
- Rats get lonely very easily – so you should never keep them alone. Both male and female rats require a buddy to be happy.
- Just like deer – male rats are called bucks and females are called does.
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