2007-03-30 05:22:22 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
Since you are asking your question in the General - Pets category I'm assuming that you are referring to our pet rats, and I will answer accordingly. Both wild rats and pet rats can eat meat without turning into biting beasts. It is the nature of the wild rat not to pass up anything that can be a meal.
Specifically, "Feeding meat to rats will make them vicious, and bite" is one of the biggest myths that those of us who own pet rats are trying to dispel. It is utter nonsense!!!!!!
http://www.curiosityrats.com/infotrue.html
There is sheer pleasure for the rats who's care-giver will give them the bones of meat and chicken instead of throwing these yummy treats in the garbage.
Do not be afraid to give your rats a little cooked meat on or off the bone. Rats are omnivores, and they need a little more protein in their diet then do other rodents. Rats do not have the problems associated with cats and dogs given bones because rats gnaw/nibble on bones, whereas cats and dogs crunch down on the bone, splintering it.
Nutritional requirements for rats:
http://ratfanclub.org/nutreq.html
http://hometown.aol.com/RistoRat/nutrition.html
http://community.livejournal.com/canadarats/4217.html
http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=nutritional+requirements+of+rats&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAqFmYLsucJ9Ju1A_wytuo5cazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAjrR1DDgyctRMOV346dKZz4azKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=nutritional+requirements+of+rats
Avoid processed/lunch meats due to their preservative content.
Rats are very gentle creatures and rarely, if ever bite. They really have to be provoked to do so. I've had a couple hundred rats in the last 11 years and only two females were actual biters. Some rats do have a tendency for hard love nibbles though. All they are doing is grooming you in the only way they know how.
http://www.ratbehavior.org/Glossary.htm#Allogrooming
Update: In regards to the answer below me. There is no such thing as breeds of rats.
http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatSpecies.htm
The Black Rat, Rattus Rattus, and the Norway Rat, Rattus Norvegicus are two separate *species* of rats. The Black Rat is still very much a wild rat and not kept as a pet, although some rat-keepers have rescued them and raised them as pets. The Black Rat is the rat that carried the flea, Yersinia Pestis, and it was the flea that caused the plague. The Norway Rat had nothing to do with the plague and our pet rats decended from the wild Norway Rat. Both the wild Norway Rat and our domestic rat still carry the scientific name Rattus Norvegicus. Everything quoted in the answer must be referring to wild rats because it doesn't sound like reference to our domestic rat.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=Species+of+rats&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAqFmYLsucJ9Ju1A_wytuo5cazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAjrR1DDgyctRMOV346dKZz4azKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=Species+of+rats
spazrats
"my life has gone to the rats"
2007-03-30 20:04:06 · answer #1 · answered by spazrats 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, feeding your rats meat will not cause them to bite. Statistically, domesticated rats rarely bite unless provoked (cornered or otherwise REALLY scared). If your rats bite they were probably not well socialized as babied and/or are genetically predisposed towards agressive behavior.
If your rats are new, and biting, they may just not be cut out to be pets unfortunately.
If you've had them for a while and they are just now starting to bite, there are a few reasons why that might happen. First, if they are male, agressive tendancies sometimes fail to appear until they are a few months old. Second, if they are female and have access to males, they may be pregnant and that can cause behavior changes due to hormones, just like in humans.
I hope that helps and be careful because rat bites are NASTY and hurt a lot!
2007-03-30 05:42:48 · answer #2 · answered by shellsomers 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hmm, no real evidence that this is the case. Lack of handling from an early age is more likely to be the problem, rats are not really biters.
The wrong diet will cause worse problems tho - there is indeed a theory that the high occurence of tumours in rats can be exacerbated by feeding meat.
Meat is OK as on occasional treat (properly cooked!), but a rat should ideally be fed on a complete rat mix in order to be getting all its nutrients.
Chalice
2007-03-30 05:36:54 · answer #3 · answered by Chalice 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
All rats are omnivorous. There are two breeds of rats available today, Black rats (name of a breed, not their color) and Norwegian rats. Norwegian rats are more common, bigger, prefer low, cool, damp places to live and like a meat-based diet. Black rats are rarer, smaller, like to live in warm, dry, high places and prefer a diet of grains, fruits and vegetables. Find out what kind of rat you have to determine what it likes-my black rats won't touch meat at all. So no, feeding a rat meat won't make it more likely to bite, the rat just might not like it. The only time any rat has bitten me it's been a mother who just gave birth. Rats almost never bite for any reason.
2007-03-30 20:04:15 · answer #4 · answered by Mother Amethyst 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No it wont cause them to bite but it can cause other problems.
Raw meats of course just like most animals can cause worms or bacteria infections. And processed sandwhich meats somtimes have alot of additives to preserve the meats.
I think boiled or baked chicken is ok in "moderation" there is a belief out there if a rat eats to much protien they may develop tumors.
2007-03-30 05:32:15 · answer #5 · answered by damiandrigz 1 · 2⤊ 1⤋
it depends on the rat itself.
2007-03-30 15:27:20 · answer #6 · answered by MommyCaleb 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋