Talk:Rat

Rats

This has nothing on rats! it gives no info people! I was tryin to look up some stuff on rats, and it gives NO INFORMATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need:

• birth weight
• usual number of syblings
• weight at 6 months
• food
• habitat
• life span

And what do i get for looking for 2 hours? NOTHING! So if you are looking for ANY of that stuff...YOU ARENT GETTIN IT PEOPLE!

I HATE WIKAPEDIA SOMETIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hee hee! :D

-Erica —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.136.93.146 (talk) 22:13, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

well erica, it would help if you told us which rat you wanted this information on. the term rat refers to several species, and all this information is different for each one. I would point you to first check out brown rat as they are they most widespread, other common rats include the black rat and rattus exulans. -- ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 01:27, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Verification that Rats get more domesticated the more generations they are in captivity can be found at: http://www.ratbehavior.org/WildAndDomesticRats.htm. It's a part of natural selection. I couldn't cite it myself. DigitalShepherd (talk) 16:56, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

I don't think this article is meant for specific information regarding breeding rats. 3dec3 (talk) 16:54, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Rats in medicine

We have a medicine section but no mention of the use of rats in diagnosing illnesses such as TB and cancer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.194.87.101 (talk) 07:41, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

check out working rat -- ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 01:29, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

rats are very interesting creaters. Some don't even like cheese. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgbyhn1 (talk • contribs) 01:50, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

In Culture

Why is Splinter from Ninja Turtles not mentioned as one of the positive portrayals of rats in culture? There was an entire decade when "Splinter" was the #1 most popular name for pet rats just because of that character!

Splinter was actually mentioned at one time over at Pet rats, however, due to the lack of third-party coverage about his role it was felt that the information was extraneous. If you could find a reference for your claim about it becoming the most popular name i think we could justifiably add that information to the other article. -- ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 18:57, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Difference between mice and rats?

It seems like an obvious section (Diff. between Rat and Mouse)... but I can't find it. Also, the "Rattus" genus page is nearly the same as the "Brown Rat" page? Can those be merged? Gpia7r (talk) 13:16, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

the "differences" between mice and rats are covered in the second paragraph of the lead. If you can think of more to say on the subject, feel free to add a section in the main article. Regarding a merge, read through WP:MERGE and if you still feel a merge would be helpful to the project, use the appropriatye templates to start the discussion. I will let you know my opinion though... the Brown rat is one of the most influential species on our planet, after humans, and has a close history with our civilizations over, at least, hundreds of years. This cannot be said of the Rattus genus as a whole, and they are distinct, although related, topics. Wikipedia does not have a deadline, and even though i agree both articles need a lot work - merging them right now is not going to faciliate that work. -- ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 18:51, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

Makes sense. I agree they need work, and we can just leave it at that. Just seemed very similar, and I didn't consider the other effects of a merger. Thanks for the response. Gpia7r (talk) 20:08, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

WikiProject Rodents

This is a notice to inform interested editors of a new WikiProject being proposed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Rodents --ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 02:05, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Rats have indeed very important jobs. I know that in Africa rats are trained to find land mines, they can smell them. That's something that could be mentioned in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.81.124.209 (talk) 18:55, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

working rats

Rats have indeed very important jobs. I know that in Africa rats are trained to find land mines, they can smell them. That's something that could be mentioned in the article.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Rat" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.81.124.209 (talk) 18:57, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

and we do indeed link to the article Working rat. --ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 19:27, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Please Fix the broken link to Brown Rat

There is a Wikipedia article on brown rats, but the link to it at the top of this page is broken. Please fix.

-Matthew D'Asaro February 10, 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Medasaro (talk • contribs) 03:19, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I see no such broken link. Compare WP:NOTBROKEN: links to redirects are still functional and need not be corrected. Ucucha 03:23, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Species of Rats

Sikkim rat is listed twice, once as //Rattus andamanensis// and once as //Rattus sikkimensis//... which is correct? Also, should this list be alphabetised? 24.84.178.199 (talk) 07:32, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Midge —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.237.145.135 (talk) 09:33, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

they are the same species, several animals are identified at various times and given names only to discover that later it was not a new species, i will address this instance. --ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 01:30, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Diseases

I think citation is needed for the part about domesticated rats being more disease prone than their wild counterpart. Rats have been pets for about 130 years. This isn't much time for bad inbreeding to occur. Rats are actually clean animals.

3dec3 (talk) 16:52, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Rats swarm

Although rare events, there have been cases of overpopulation causing the rats to "flood" an area eating everything they can on their way, including resorting to cannibalism. I'm not sure how to call this exactly, but found no reference to that in this article. If someone knows more about this, it would be nice to add. Thanks, 66.11.179.30 (talk) 23:55, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

I found out that this is most commonly called a "swarm" and modified the subtitle to reflect this. 66.11.179.30 (talk) 02:19, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Species doesn't decide...

Rat and mouse are one of only 2 pairs of animal terms I know for which species doesn't decide which term it gets. Namely, rat is for larger members and mouse is for smaller members. The other pair I know is cow and ox. Cow is for animals used as meat or milk; ox is for draft animals. Any other pairs of animal terms like this?? Georgia guy (talk) 00:02, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Pigeon and dove? I don't think it's actually true for "mouse" and "rat", though: usage of the two is in fact determined by the taxonomic group to which the species belongs. For example, species of the genus Oligoryzomys (which I think are generally about as large as the house mouse) are called "pygmy rice rats", but the species of Neacomys, which are closely related and similar in size, are called "bristly mice". Ucucha 03:44, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

i think genus is about as large a group that you can say will apply to either a "mouse" or a "rat" - the subfamily Neotominae springs to mind instantly as one that includes both. --ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria

Rats as pests

That is the most common way they are viewed by the majority of the population! Why is that not even a subject on this site? I'm guessing the rat lovers have never experienced infestation of their home, or rats chewing the brake wires on their car! Unbelievable! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rob gerein (talk • contribs) 23:48, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

you are right that this is how rats are most commonly viewed in the western industrial world, and the article mentions this is in Species and description along with European cultures (although admittedly biased in the latter). However rats are mainly seen as a food source in Africa and in some Asian cultures, and even revered in some Indian cultures. The article on the Brown rat covers the topic of it's role as a pest species, as that is the species most attributable. --ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 00:38, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

The main concept that rats are a pest that should be dealt with accordingly, especially when infesting a home, is not properly or even realistically dealt with anywhere in this extremely biased Wikipedia article. I can't believe this nonsense is still being portrayed as factual information. There could be millions of examples detailing cases in which rats have spread disease, and consequently, directly or indirectly, caused death to humans, including the Plague. But instead, it reads like some biased manifesto written by a member of the Rat Lovers' Association. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rob gerein (talk • contribs) 00:15, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I agree, im sure rats are nice pets but there has to be sections on disease and the viewpoint of them being pests. Millertime246 (talk) 00:19, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

This article is about the Rattus genus, and not every rat is the Brown rat or the Black rat, which are the biggest mammalian pests. You can read about how horrible they are in their respective articles. 74.36.132.106 (talk) 21:58, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

rats eat humans if they are hungry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dirtyblackratpoo (talk • contribs) 07:30, 10 December 2011 (UTC) big rat Felipe calderon is a big rat