Rats are the most unpleasant creatures for humans, especially when we're talking about about wild specimens living in basements, sheds and other outbuildings. They feed on grain reserves, damage garden beds, and even attack chickens. But their most dangerous manifestation is an attack on a person. About under what circumstances this can happen and how to behave if bitten by a rat in the article.
Can a rat attack a person?
These rodents attack people more often than you might think. Statistics show that:
- In Moscow, there is one rat for every resident, and at least 600 rat bites are recorded per year;
- In the USA, the figures are even worse: there are 6 rodents per resident, and there are more than 14,000 registered bites in 12 months;
- If we take global indicators, the figure is frightening - 3.5 million such cases per year.
Looking at these numbers, many users may have a question: “Can a rat attack a person while he is sleeping?” And unfortunately the question will be in the affirmative. There are stories of rodents biting off the earlobes of sleeping or dehydrated people.
Rodents completely lack the gene responsible for fear and therefore this animal attacks an enemy of any size, be it an elephant or another rodent (this is why rats can attack mice). But such attacks are aimed at frightening the opponent in order to gain time and retreat.
Causes of a rat attack on a person
There are only 2 most probable reasons rodent attacks on humans:
Self-defense - when an animal bites, thinking that a person is going to harm him or his offspring. This situation can arise when a rat's nest is destroyed or when a person tries to get a rodent out of a trap.
It is worth mentioning that there is no need to drive the rodent into a corner, as the likelihood of an attack will increase significantly.
Hunger - this motive is significantly inferior to the previous one in terms of the number of attacks it provokes. In our latitudes and in the civilized world as a whole, this is rare. Rats attack humans to satisfy hunger in regions where there is serious problems with food. The victims of such attacks are mainly children and teenagers.
Can rats attack a cat?
Theoretically, there is such a possibility (they are devoid of fear), but in practice, evolution created the cat precisely as a machine for fighting rodents. Without exception, all small animals avoid contact with representatives of the feline order. However, a rodent will attack a cat if it finds itself cornered, no matter its breed. Neither the size will scare you. There are also known cases of these rodents attacking kittens and small cats, but only with the desire to scare them.
What to do if bitten by a rat?
When bitten, you do not need to stop the bleeding immediately; you need to wait 2-3 minutes for bacteria and microbes to come out of the wound.
- Wash the wound with a solution of laundry soap dissolved in water (half a piece in 2 cups of water. The alkali neutralizes the rabies virus. The wound must be washed for 5 to 15 minutes, depending on its depth;
- The edges of the wound should be treated with iodine;
- Apply a sterile bandage;
- After primary processing wounds at home, you must consult a doctor. At the emergency room they will carry out professional treatment and clarify the situation with vaccination.
Rat bite treatment
In most cases, the wound itself is not deep and, with proper care, heals quickly. The question of treatment arises if with the bite you also acquired a disease carried by a rat.
Diseases transmitted by rat bites
Leptospirosis — infection. The causative agent is the genus Leptospira. Has danger fatal outcome(16%). During the course of the disease, they are affected internal organs(liver, kidneys) and nervous system.
Listeriosis - a less dangerous disease that has a difficult course in pregnant women (can lead to fetal loss) and people with weakened immune systems.
Yersiniosis – an infectious disease that affects gastrointestinal tract and causes intoxication of the entire body. As the disease progresses, the liver may weaken, musculoskeletal system and other organs. Incubation period- from 15 hours to 18 days (average 3 – 7 days).
Melioidosis – a disease native to Asian countries. If untimely and incorrect treatment can lead to death.
Rats are extremely unpleasant and dangerous creatures. They are characterized by huge, strong teeth, with the help of which they gnaw through everything in their path, even a concrete wall is not an obstacle to them.
Their appearance in homes is a serious matter, it makes you worry every time, causes a lot of trouble and fear, especially when a child lives there. On top of that, they are carriers of various dangerous diseases and infections. Bedbugs, mosquitoes, and fleas thrive on the skins of tailed creatures, which subsequently move inside human homes and onto pets.
Can a rat attack a person?
Can a rat attack a person while he is sleeping? Unfortunately, this is true and she is capable of doing it. This happens in real life, but not so often. According to statistics from huge Moscow with a population of 12 million, about five hundred people a year are attacked by rodents, this is approximately 2% of total number bites. This includes bites from stray dogs, cats and other animals.
Causes of a rat attack on a person
Rodents mainly attack disadvantaged categories of citizens, these include sleeping people in a state of alcoholic intoxication, as well as homeless people who take refuge inside stinking basements, sewers, dirty gateways, and other similar corners that attract pests.
Some claim that the animals have saliva with anesthetic properties that manifest themselves when they bite, so a sleeping person may not feel it. However, this is just a myth; you should not trust such talk; this type of animal completely lacks the ability to produce anesthetics. All home lovers decorative rats Ok, you know how painful they bite, such sensations make you feel uneasy, and it’s simply impossible not to jump out of bed at night.
Most often, they may attack when they are very hungry or in self-defense if they find themselves cornered.
Can rats attack a cat?
It is not at all uncommon for these creatures to attack domestic animals. Big gray rat can easily kill a cat by biting its throat, and a whole flock of individuals can even bite a dog to death.
Only rats infected with rabies can attack without cause.
What to do if bitten by a rat?
The most dangerous rat bites are those made to the neck or face, as here blood vessels located closest to the skin, due to this, the infection quickly penetrates into the body. Therefore, the problem needs to be solved as quickly as possible.
Rat bite treatment
First aid should be carried out as follows:
Wash the wound thoroughly with a liquid solution of laundry soap (at least 5 minutes for superficial wounds, 10 minutes for deep ones). It is better to carry out the procedure under pressure; a small syringe or enema is ideal for this.
When blood oozes from a wound, this is very good, as dirt and bacteria are washed away from there.
Upon completion of the soap treatment, it is necessary to disinfect the bite site with peroxide, chlorhexidine, or you can take furatsilin. Apply iodine around the edges.
The next step is to apply a sterile bandage with an antibiotic and immediately consult a doctor.
If you find signs of pest control on your pet, it is also important to immediately provide first aid, treat all wounds, and then show it to a veterinarian. It is recommended that your pet be vaccinated in advance.
Diseases transmitted by rat bites
Any person should be aware that when he is bitten by a rat, he risks getting from it about twenty pathogens of terrible diseases. The main ones include:
- listeriosis;
- leptospirosis;
- melioidosis;
- toxoplasmosis;
- Q fever.
Two types of terrible infections can also be transmitted to you: rabies and tetanus. All of these diseases are extremely dangerous and can lead to death.
Here are just some interesting facts:
- In Moscow, more than 600 rat bites are officially registered every year;
- In the United States alone, rats bite more than 14,000 people each year;
- The number of rat attacks on people around the world reaches 3.5 million per year;
- Diseases transmitted by rat bites kill more than 2,000 people worldwide every year.
At a minimum, this means that rats attack people quite often - much more often than an ordinary city dweller, familiar with rats only by hearsay, might think. On the Internet you can even find videos of such attacks, although in general videos with real, dangerous attacks are extremely rare.
As for the cases when these animals bit a person to death - in such documentary evidence we are talking about people who could not move or were unconscious. Yes, a rat can attack a person, it is even capable of doing this on its own initiative, and not just in self-defense, but such an attack is always limited to only individual bites, even serious ones and fraught with infection.
Pictured is a rat bite:
Agree, it is difficult to imagine that an animal (or even several animals) of a relatively small size could kill a person who is conscious and able to move.
However, those who like to tickle the nerves are actively spreading rumors about giant mutant rats from the subway that can kill a person, as well as stories about the invasion of cannibal rats and the corpses of people allegedly found in the sewers, gnawed by them. In these myths, the danger of rats is greatly exaggerated, but this exaggeration is not always obvious to the person to whom such a story is told. Many people readily believe in stories and cannot distinguish truth from fiction.
So how can a rat attack on a person actually end? And why, in general, do these animals attack? Are they only trying to protect themselves and their home, or do they really view the person as a victim? Are there, after all, true cannibal rats capable of attacking a person en masse and killing him?
Let's find out...
Why and when do rats attack people?
Almost all cases of rat attacks on humans occur for two reasons:
- The rat attacks in defense of itself or its offspring. This usually happens when they try to remove the animal from a trap, destroy its nest, or try to catch or kill it during a direct encounter indoors (often by driving it into a corner);
- Much less often, an animal tries to bite off a piece of skin or even meat (from a child or a sedentary person in general) in order to satisfy its hunger.
In Russia, rats extremely rarely consider people as food, since they can easily find a sufficient amount of food over in safe ways. And they have to attack a person only when he poses a threat to their life (or it seems to them that such a threat comes from the person).
On a note
According to some data, rats bite 1.2 people out of 100 thousand annually, that is, approximately 90-95 thousand rat attacks on people occur every year around the world. Another statistic states that only 1 in 36 people report such bites, meaning in reality the number of rat attacks on humans could reach up to 3.5 million per year worldwide.
In third world countries, in slums and poor areas, where there are a lot of rats, against the backdrop of a general lack of food sources, these animals often gnaw at the heels of sleeping people and even try to bite the soft tissues of the body. On the other hand, here many poor people catch rats for food, and with such a hunt, bites by the animals are inevitable.
But even here we cannot talk about rats that want to kill or tear apart a person - these are simply rodents that bite on the sly (evaluating a person as food), or as part of self-defense.
The outcome of such an attack usually depends on the purpose for which the rat attacks.
How do rats attack?
The vast majority of rat attacks occur to some degree unexpectedly to humans. Typically these animals attack people in one of two ways.
More often, rats rush at people from a distance, making a jump and trying not so much to bite as to scare a person (they often squeak, almost squeal). This type of attack usually occurs when the animal is scared, cornered and forced to defend itself. An example of such an attack is shown in the video:
In more rare cases, a rodent climbs onto a sleeping person and bites him on the open area bodies. The video below shows an example of such an attack:
As a rule, attacks of the first type are the most dangerous. With them, the rat purposefully strives to inflict greatest damage the offender, bites hard and more than once. And if a person is confused (for example, a child), he can be bitten quite badly.
By the way, rat bites of sleeping people are often not felt: for example, rats gnaw the skin on people’s heels very carefully, without causing pain. As a rule, a person does not even wake up during such an attack.
It should be borne in mind that when a rat openly rushes at a person, it, first of all, seeks to scare him in order to be able to escape. And if the situation is not in your favor, then it is best to let her do it rather than try to continue to catch her, receiving new bites.
On a note
There is no documented evidence that rats alone or in packs can pursue a fleeing person for a long time or attack him from a hiding place. It is difficult to imagine a cannibal rat weighing about 300 grams that would try to chase and kill a 60-kilogram person.
Dangers of Rat Attacks
However, for whatever reasons, rats attack people, the main dangers of these attacks are always the same: when an animal is bitten, there is a high risk of contracting serious diseases, primarily sodoku and tetanus.
Sodoku is relatively easy to treat, but without therapy it is deadly (its mortality rate in an untreated form is 10%). The disease is accompanied by severe muscle pain, high temperature, anemia and exhaustion of the body.
The dangers of tetanus are well known: among its consequences are paralysis, nervous disorders, pneumonia, and in severe cases - death. Even with the use of modern medicines, the mortality rate of the disease is 17-25%, and in remote areas it kills 9 people out of 10 cases.
On a note
Other diseases, for example, various fevers, leptospirosis and typhus, can be transmitted not even through bites, but simply through contact with wild rats or their corpses. For example, if you throw a rat out of a trap, you can easily become infected. And the same typhus or plague is even carried by rat fleas - for infection it is not necessary to have contact with an animal at all.
In tropical regions, when attacked by a rat, there is a high risk of contracting various fevers - Lassa, Argentine, Venezuelan. Lassa fever, for example, causes more than 5,000 deaths annually, with a mortality rate of 30%.
The photo below shows a rat bite:
If the tetanus pathogen gets under the skin during a bite, then the development of the disease is likely.
Meanwhile, rats cannot tolerate rabies, and infection with sodoku or tetanus from rodent attacks occurs relatively rarely. In general, the probability of contracting any disease from a rat bite is about 2% - this is a sufficient reason to avoid such an attack, and after it, see a doctor.
Another danger of rat bites is, in fact, injury. According to statistics, after attacks by these animals, victims are left with:
- Damage to soft tissues characteristic of rodent bites - in 61% of cases;
- Lacerated wounds - in 14% of cases;
- Abrasions - in 12% of cases;
- Bruising without damage to the skin - in 6% of cases;
- Hematomas - 5% of the consequences of bites;
- Finger fractures - 2%.
Often, during one attack by an animal, a person receives several different injuries at once.
Statistics were collected based on an analysis of about 500 rat attacks on people. At a minimum, it shows that these animals are quite strong and can leave serious wounds on the human body.
The photo below shows a girl who was attacked by a rat:
This is interesting
Using measuring equipment, scientists tested the bite force of an ordinary gray rat: the animal can create a pressure of 500 kg/cm 2 with its incisors. This allows him to chew through metal wires and deal with the bones of dead animals, nuts and seeds. Rest assured: to bite your finger to the bone, the rat won’t even have to strain hard...
All these injuries may not seem so significant compared to those that a person receives when a rat deliberately tries to chew off a piece of his flesh. In particular, there have been documented cases where a rat bit off a child’s nose or earlobe, and for many drunk people, animals even chewed off the phalanges of the fingers. In addition, stories are described when rats killed a person who was unable to move and defend himself.
“A schoolteacher in the Italian town of Bari had just put her three-year-old daughter Simone to bed and went into the next room when she heard a loud, piercing scream from the nursery. Running into the room and turning on the light, she saw a garbage rat scurrying across the room with a piece of a child's ear. The screaming girl was sitting on the bed and holding her head with her hand covered in blood..."
What is known today about cannibal rats?
As noted above, there are quite well-known and frequent cases where rats gnaw off the hardened skin on a person’s heels. This usually happens when the victim is sleeping, and often the attack ends in serious trouble - the animals get to the soft tissues, and the wounds here do not heal for a very long time due to constant restlessness when walking.
When the rats realize that a person cannot harm them, they calmly gnaw off more and more pieces from his body. It was rats who killed in the Middle Ages great amount prisoners in prisons and prisoners in military camps: people were tied up, their ability to move was severely limited, and hungry rodents boldly (and expertly) chewed on them, leaving bleeding wounds. A person usually died either from blood loss or from blood poisoning.
If a person is paralyzed or unconscious, they may suffer the same fate.
“This incident took place in Naples. 77-year-old Vittoria Chipula has not appeared in public for several days and has not responded to phone calls, and one of her friends decided to visit her. In the house, he saw a terrible picture: a woman was lying on the bed, and her body was completely nibbled by rats. It is not known whether the woman died before the rodents attacked, or whether they bit her while she was alive...”
Angelo Maria Perrino, Panorama, Milan, 1979
There is information about the terrible torture that guilty prisoners were subjected to in Stalin's labor camps: a person's hands and feet were tied, after which he was put in a large barrel, into which hungry rats were released. A few days later, corpses with their stomachs eaten away were taken out of the barrels. There were other options for torture...
And yet, we cannot talk about specialized cannibal rats. These animals are omnivores and eat any meat: the rat, if possible, eats entrails and gnaws bones, and if it finds the corpse of any animal or person, it will bite off pieces of that too. The animal may not notice the difference between a corpse and an unconscious person.
That is, by and large, real cannibal rats are the most ordinary rats, eating everything, but by chance they simply found themselves next to the motionless body of a person and did not disdain to feast on it.
But rats that feed exclusively on human flesh are not known to science today. Moreover, there is no evidence that these animals can attack healthy people and bite them to death. Even an invasion of rats in certain areas never leads to human casualties. For example, from different Russian cities, rat infestations are reported with varying frequency, but no tragic cases follow these events.
On a note
The largest rats on the planet are completely safe for humans. These are African marsupial rats and Bosavi woolly rats, reaching a length of more than half a meter and weighing several kilograms. They never attack people. The former are specially trained and used in military units to search for mines, the latter are very rare, and when meeting a person in nature, they do not pay attention to him and do not show any aggression.
Ironically, the most aggressive rats are the small basement animals, accustomed to the fact that the basement is their territory.
Do rats attack pets?
But rats are much more dangerous for domestic animals than for humans. At a minimum, because they boldly attack birds and mammals of comparable size to themselves, be it a mouse, a hamster, a duckling or even an adult pigeon, and always during such attacks they expect to kill and devour the prey.
Moreover, in pursuit of prey, rats can demonstrate amazing strength and agility. For example, they can catch ducklings in the water, climb walls into bird nests, and fearlessly bite the paws of large birds.
And when confronted with a cat, the rodent often boldly attacks it, hoping to stun the enemy with a daring attack, gain time and escape. The video below shows a rat attacking a cat:
On a note
The famous zoo owner Karl Hagenbeck's rats killed three elephants in one night. They gnawed the giant animals' feet very badly, and the elephants developed blood poisoning.
In countries where rat infestations occur with varying frequency, these animals can completely ruin small farms.
IN wildlife Rats are also very aggressive. They attack albatross chicks in their nests, destroy mouse nests, and eat tadpoles, small frogs and lizards.
The video below shows a unique case in which an adult rat boldly attacks a snake, saving its young:
Do pet rats bite?
Of course, homemade pet rat can also bite a person. If you tease her, try to take away her food, abruptly wake her up, or unexpectedly pick up her baby, then there is a high probability that the animal will bite her finger. Such attacks are carried out without any “malicious intent” - the animal is simply trying to communicate to the person in a way that is accessible to him that he doesn’t like something.
If a rat is tame, then it will definitely not try to bite off its owner’s nose or gnaw his heels.
On a note
Therefore, by the way, stories about Afghan man-eating rats, which were allegedly brought to Russia under the guise of decorative dachshunds, were kept as pets, but which, they say, could at any moment remember their aggressive rat nature and attack the owners, cause serious skepticism.
So, a short summary: rat attacks on people are indeed quite possible and, moreover, happen quite often. In most cases, rodents attack people in self-defense, but sometimes they may consider sedentary prey as a potential source of meat. However, there are no real man-eating rats in the world: there are no huge rats-mutants capable of tearing apart a person alone, and there are no rodents that attack people in large groups and specialize specifically in feeding on human flesh.
This means you shouldn’t be afraid that rats will attack you somewhere and want to bite you or, moreover, devour you. If you don’t get into trouble yourself, don’t stay overnight in dubious places and don’t try to kill a running rat, you won’t be at risk of being attacked by the animal at all.
An example of a rat biting children while they slept
Cat and rat fight
Residents of the first floors and private houses most often have to wonder whether rats really attack people. These animals are found large sizes, but even the young individual thanks long tail seems more significant. Taking into account appearance Fears about whether rats attack people are sometimes justified. It is recommended to delve into the causes of this phenomenon, which will allow you to protect yourself.
Are people being attacked?
The answer to this question is positive. Just don’t think that the first rodent you come across is potentially dangerous and will certainly attack. However, cases of pests biting people are numerous. There are only specific reasons for this.
How often do attacks occur?
When wondering why rats are dangerous for humans, you need to know that they have long teeth, since these small animals are predators. How larger city, the more small pests there are. At large numbers There are several of these animals per inhabitant of the population.
If we talk about official cases, an average of 300-600 rodent attacks on people are recorded every day. However, not all victims who encounter rodents seek help from a doctor. This means there are more similar cases.
In the United States, they bite at least 14,000 people every year, mostly residents of disadvantaged areas
Main provoking factors
If the question arises whether a rat can attack a person, the reasons for this should also be studied. Main provoking factors:
- Rodent has rabies
- A sense of danger, and the pest’s first reaction is to run away; if it fails, the rodent goes on to attack
- An attempt to drive small animals out of their homes; they attack only if the colony has grown
- Increasing the number of rodents gives them a sense of courage
- Hunger provokes cannibalism among rodents, and the lack of food also causes them to bite other warm-blooded creatures.
Given that hunger drives pests to eat their fellow creatures, it is not surprising that rats eat people under certain circumstances.
How do rodents attack? The jump is made quickly, so the victim does not have time to jump away. However, you can determine the moment when the rodent is about to lunge. At the same time, he rises on his hind legs and bares his teeth, showing his teeth.
They have been living next to humans for thousands of years. amazing creatures- rats. These animals are dexterous, cunning and very tenacious. We have tolerated them side by side for thousands of years, watching the damage to things and food. But rats also turned out to be carriers of infectious diseases that killed millions of people. Yes and Agriculture a lot has suffered from gray rodents. It is no coincidence that rats are for humans - dangerous enemy. This image has been formed in us since childhood.
Rats cause disgust, disgust, fear and disgust. These creatures are endowed with the most bad traits character, which is only possible. Rodents are considered greedy, thieving, bloodthirsty and aggressive. So prejudices became myths and were passed on from generation to generation. And who was interested in checking the veracity of rumors and convincing others?
Only about a century and a half ago, people began to tame rats and even keep them at home as pets. And although these animals not only have become much closer to us, they help in scientific experiments, they still cannot radically change their image. Some myths, let's be honest, were not born out of nowhere. Nevertheless, let's try to figure out where the truth is and where the lies are. And can all myths also apply to domestic rats?
Rats can survive in any conditions. They say that these creatures are almost the most important ancient disaster of humanity. And rats appeared in nature many millions of years before us. People have been fighting these rodents for thousands of years, but there has been little progress. After all, the rat is capable of fantastic adaptation to different conditions, survive in wild and harsh environments. Smart rodents are not afraid of radiation, temperatures, lack of food, and they are not afraid of bait. Scientists say there are no modern methods, which could be used to kill rats. And this is due to their innate wariness towards everything new, especially unusual smells. So the danger of poisoned baits to rats quickly becomes clear. In the rodent society there are even special testers, creatures who are ready to risk their lives to test the taste of new food. So the adaptability of rats is not a myth at all.
Rats attack humans. There is some truth in this myth. In general, rats avoid people out of fear of them. But there are situations when an animal is forced to defend itself. Then the rat can actually attack a person. Villagers can tell how these creatures have bitten and even eaten unattended infants. Rats can also attack domestic animals. There are known cases of eating hamsters, turtles, attacks on kittens and puppies. The reason is hunger, which pushes rats to do terrible things.
A rat can chew a hole in anything. The ability of rats to chew through material is quite high. In fact, only glass and iron cannot resist them. Rats sharpen brick and concrete with some success; wood, plastic, and rubber lend themselves well to them. So electrical cable sheathing and glass wool will not stop the rodent. Rats gnawed through walls, undermined dams and foundations, and undermined bridge supports. Thanks to them, even waterproof ship partitions turned into a sieve.
Rats reproduce very quickly. This statement is difficult to deny. In rats, pregnancy lasts only two weeks. And already three days after giving birth, the rat is ready for new fertilization. Rats spend a month in the nest, and already at 3-4 months of life they reach puberty. As a female ages, her fertility only increases. As a result, depending on the amount of food around and living conditions, the female brings offspring several times a year. There are usually 8-10 cubs in a litter, but sometimes this number can reach 16. The female takes care of her offspring, keeping the nest warm and clean. And rats' milk is very nutritious.
The rat is an ancient laboratory animal. Laboratory experiments have indeed been carried out on rats for a long time. These are very unpretentious creatures, the maintenance of which is simple and inexpensive. It is on rats that people test medications, cosmetics, and vaccines. We are afraid of rats, but it is to them that many people owe both beauty and life.
Rats carry various diseases. On the one hand, this is true, but it most likely refers to wild species kind. Rats do carry diseases such as rabies, tularemia, and toxoplasmosis. But we ourselves are also carriers of various diseases. What happens - anyone you meet must necessarily be a dangerous infectious source? Dogs also carry diseases, including those dangerous to humans. But no one refuses to get a puppy for this reason. As for rats, even wild specimens are not necessarily infected with a particular disease. And there’s no need to talk about ornamental animals. How can they get terrible diseases, if they initially grow in an artificial environment (at home or in a store), and have no contact with their wild relatives at all? And such rats don’t appear on the street. Oddly enough, but for pet rat man represents great danger than she is to him. So, if you have to worry about it, it would be wild rats, not decorative ones.
Rats are evil and dangerous creatures, the bite of which immediately causes blood poisoning. Owners of pet rats can tell a lot about how affectionate and gentle their pets are. These creatures can feel sorry for their owners when they Bad mood, rats even lick tears. These rodents adore affection and appreciate it. It happens that they are even ready to exchange food for care from their owner; rats ask to be petted first and only then begin to eat. For the development of sepsis, one bite is not enough; certain conditions are also necessary. And blood poisoning as such can occur due to any other damage to the skin. American rat breeders cite this simple fact: over the past 20 years, not a single case of a person contracting an infectious disease after a rodent bite has been documented in this country.
The most evil rats are those with red eyes. In fact, eye color does not in any way determine the behavior of an animal. After all, we do not define a person’s cruelty by this same parameter. And eye color in rats only affects their visual abilities. Those creatures with red eyes see much worse than their black-eyed relatives. As a result, they have to rely more not even on their sense of smell, which also has problems, but on their hearing. As for blood poisoning, in order for sepsis to develop, just a bite is not enough; certain conditions must be present. In addition, blood poisoning can develop from other damage to the skin; infection can enter through a boil, any cut or burn. So you just need to follow the rules of hygiene and treat wounds in a timely manner.
Decorative rats bite just like wild rats. Everyone knows that rats sometimes bite quite hard. The pressure force of the teeth is 500 kg per cm². It is known that an adult creature can not only bite through a finger, but even gnaw through concrete. Bites are a common means of self-defense for wild animals. But for a domestic, decorative rat, a bite means that a person is to blame. The owner just tormented her too much or hurt her. It is rare for a rat to bite only out of fear or in an attempt to thus show its dominant position in a certain pack. Unmotivated bites are quite rare for such domesticated creatures.
Rats have a nasty and cold bare tail. And males have unpleasant cold testicles. Let's talk about the body temperature of these animals. From school course In zoology, we can recall that rats are rodents. They also belong to the class of mammals, that is, warm-blooded animals. Where will they suddenly have a cold part of their body. And those who don’t like the naked tail of a rat have simply never looked at it carefully. This part of the body is not at all deprived hairline, it’s just much rarer on her than on the rest of the body.
Rats are unscrupulous and dirty creatures. Once you watch the rat a little, it turns out that it devotes quite a lot of time to washing itself and licking its body. While in cages, many of these rodents go to the toilet only in a certain corner. But it is worth recognizing that the character of rats, like people, can be different. There are animals that are absolute cleaners. They do not even eat the part of the food that they held with their paws, throwing it away. In their own cage, such rats constantly restore order, keeping an eye on their own cleanliness. But there are also creatures that are not so attentive to dirt. But even among people there are real “pigs”, should we blame the rats?
The dirtiest place for rats is their paws. This is not true, because the dirtiest place on the body of this rodent is the tail. He trails the rat everywhere, picking up leftover food and excrement. And even though the animals constantly take care of themselves and clean their tail, it will constantly attract dirt to itself. If young rats have a light pink tail, over time it becomes dark and spotted. It's all because of the dirt particles that get under the tail scales and stick to the hairs. You can buy a pet rat, but even this is not enough to remove all the dirt from the tail. Then you have to carry out special cleaning using brushes and mild detergents.
Being naked, the rat will freeze. In the cold, decorative hairless rats will, of course, freeze. And the woolly variety does not tolerate frost well; the animal can easily catch a cold and die. But in a warm room, hairless rats feel comfortable, they will not freeze there. These creatures have a little elevated temperature body, which allows you to compensate for the lack of hair. Of course, the thermoregulation mechanisms of rats are not as perfect as those of humans. The rat is not even afraid of high or low temperature, but of its sudden change. The body simply does not have time to adapt to such unexpected changes in the environment, which leads to illness. So rats do not tolerate cold well, but sometimes even heat. At poultry markets one could see rats in cages even at minus 15 degrees; there are known cases of wild rats breeding at minus 20.
Rats - tenacious creatures, they can live up to eight years. If these creatures lived to be eight years old, their owners would be immensely happy. In fact, rats usually live for two to three years, only occasionally a little longer. An eight-year-old rat is either a fantasy or an outright deception.
Huge rats, almost a meter long, live in the subway and abandoned mines. Quite often we come across stories about such monsters. But there is no evidence of this. But such a rat, if found, would undoubtedly attract everyone's attention. The body length of an ordinary rodent of this type, excluding the tail, does not exceed 30 centimeters; only exceptional specimens can reach a mass of more than a kilogram.
Such a vile creature has nothing to do in the house; the dwelling will then have to be consecrated. In ancient times, rats constantly ran around the village huts, but no one went to the priest every time after that. The Church is not against the fact that Christians domesticated animals. IN Old Testament The issue of clean and unclean animals is discussed in some detail. In the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the Lord told Peter that there was no such pet that could not be with a person. There are no such creatures in the house from which it would be necessary to free oneself from filth. New Testament does not mean at all that some Living being is bad, unclean. Accordingly, there is no such rule - to re-consecrate a house or temple after it.
Rats should not be fed meat, otherwise they become aggressive and angry. Rats, like humans by the way, are omnivores. But do we become evil after eating meat? Vegetarians claim something similar, but there is no reliable confirmation of this fact. So why would rats become evil?
A rat may well eat food from a person's table. It is worth being attentive to what a person offers to his pet. Alcohol, spicy, salty, pickled, and carbonated drinks are contraindicated for rats. So there is a list of strictly prohibited foods. It is also better not to offer rats sweet, fried or fatty foods.
Rats don’t drink at all; they get enough of the liquid contained in vegetables. In fact, rats need water. This rodent drinks 30-35 milliliters of water per day. And eating wet food simply reduces daily norm up to 5-10 milliliters. It has been experimentally proven that rats can live quite normally if their food contains more than 65% moisture. If this figure is 45%, then after 26 days the animal will die; at 14%, it will live only 4-5 days. In general, a rat can live no more than two days without water; even depriving an animal of fluid for a day can have a bad effect on its health and future offspring.
Rats can live in any conditions and eat anything. That is why special food and mineral stones are just a reason to rip more off their naive owners. In nature, rats eat almost anything they can get their hands on. In urban conditions, they do not disdain either scraps, feces, or slop. wild rat pursues one goal - to survive at any cost. Eventually average duration The life of a wild representative is no more than a year. Do the owners want the same fate for theirs? for a pet? Adaptability is good, but for a rat to live long and be healthy, it is best to give it the necessary nutrients and minerals, and clean the cage on time. If she doesn't have enough food, she may start eating her own excrement.
A rat doesn't need a big cage. Rats are very active creatures. They need constant physical activity. Only in a large cage can they maintain their shape. And don’t forget to arrange ladders, labyrinths, and ropes there. For any living creature, health lies in movement. In the literature on rat breeding there is practical advice for arranging a house. Each individual should have a volume of 0.06 to 0.15 cubic meters. And for one rodent, the minimum recommended size is 36 by 60 by 30 centimeters.
If a rat is released from its cage, it will definitely run away. Do not suspect wild instincts in your pets. Decorative rats easily and permanently become attached to their owners. It is no coincidence that rat breeders use terms such as “couch rat” and “shoulder rat” in everyday life. There are also curious pets who want to explore the world around them. But even such rats quickly learn to return when called by their owners. But what you definitely shouldn’t do is let domestic rats run around in nature, in the countryside. An animal can get so carried away with studying new environment and smells that you simply get lost. Then he imagines contracting a disease, getting poisoned, or even becoming prey to local predators.
To keep your pet rat from smelling, you need to bathe it constantly. In fact, it is recommended to bathe rats only in two cases. A bath is needed if the pet is very dirty. Another option is to prepare the rat for an exhibition. To prevent the animal from smelling, you just need to regularly clean its cage. You can also wipe the rat wet wipe, as a last resort. Decorative varieties Rodents generally do not like water; bathing is very stressful for them. After all, there is a high chance of catching a cold after taking a bath. But even here there are representatives who are not only not afraid of water, but also enjoy swimming in it. By the way, fear of water is not a specific phobia of rats at all, because in nature wild representatives They swim very well. It’s just that pets are initially unfamiliar with water. If rats are accustomed to water from childhood, they may well learn to dive and become excellent swimmers. On hot days you cannot do without water, given that rats have worse thermoregulation than humans, water treatments I can be great opportunity cool down.
To prevent female rats from having tumors, they must give birth. And again it is worth saying that there is no reliable information about the connection between tumors and childbirth. Malignant formations can also appear in a female who has given birth, but a nulliparous female may not have them all her life. So in the matter of having offspring, more serious arguments must be taken into account.
Tumors in rats are contagious, so infected creatures must be euthanized immediately. Both in humans and in rats, tumors are non-contagious. There are some viruses that can initiate the formation of tumors, including cancer. But simply having a virus that could begin to transform a cell is not enough. The cell itself must still be ready for such changes, and the body must not interfere with such processes. So if viruses have some significance in the development of tumors, the mechanism here is different from what is observed with infectious diseases. There is simply no evidence of cancer being transmitted from one individual to another. And in rats themselves, most often the tumors are not malignant. It is worth talking about euthanasia only when the tumor causes real suffering to the animal.
Rats must live in pairs - a male and a female. This statement is not only false, but also dangerous. Rats are truly social animals that prefer to live in groups. But keeping creatures of different sexes together is undesirable. Sexual maturity in these rodents occurs early, at two months. But physical maturity comes later, at six months. IN natural populations there are mechanisms that warn early pregnancy females But they don’t work for decorative rats. As a result, a female who becomes pregnant at three months is the same as a human girl who becomes pregnant at 12-13 years old. Is it worth mentioning what such an early birth will mean for both mother and offspring? Even if you put adult rats together, trying to avoid this problem, another problem will appear - frequent births. This will manifest itself in the early aging of the female’s body, the exhaustion of her body, and the deterioration of each subsequent offspring. Even for a male, early mating is undesirable. So if you want a rat to live happily ever after in captivity, you should get same-sex animals. Females and males get along well with their own kind, without suffering at all from the lack of sexual contact.
Rats often eat their offspring. If rats are kept properly, such cases will be very rare. To prevent such horrors from happening, you need to feed your pets well, give them a good nest where they will not be disturbed in vain, and provide them with fresh water. And females should not be bred early, also avoiding weak, sickly individuals. Rats are usually quite caring mothers who tenderly care for their young. Females protect their offspring from strangers, leaving the nest only briefly to eat and rest. Rats even camouflage their nest by hiding their babies. It happens that females raise not only their offspring, but also adopted babies. Even males are capable of caring for their children. And eating their own offspring is generally common among rodents, owners often talk about this guinea pigs or hamsters. For a rat to eat its children, there needs to be a compelling reason. The main one is stress. It happens that the female does not feel safe, does not have enough food and is not confident in herself. Sometimes she tries to eat one or two of the weakest cubs in order to be able to hatch the rest, saving her strength for them. But it's very rare case, which can be avoided by creating good conditions for a pregnant rat.
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