What Do Rats Eat?
Rats are true pests that can cause immense destruction to mankind if no action is taken to get rid of them. They will gnaw at everything, from papers, pipes, clothes, plastics, electric cables, to glass, aluminum and a variety of food items in the household or anywhere else and cause loss to human and property. Their strong teeth helps them in this damaging activity.
Rats are sharp rodents. Their strong senses help them to find food. They can dig three feet into the ground, chew almost anything they come across, climb pipes and run really fast. House rats can turn everything upside-down within a few minutes and leave anyone gaping at the destruction caused! Several people use mouse-trap to get rid of the rat menace.
Rats are ravenous scavengers and can survive on almost anything. Their diet usually consists of grain, livestock and meat. Rats also feed on soap, leather, furs, milk, meat, vegetables, poultry, eggs, grain, seeds, fruit, nuts, snails and other rodents. A rat can consume almost a third of its body weight on a daily basis. Water forms an important part of a rat diet. They cannot live without water and require 1/2 to 1 ounce of water every day.
There are two varieties of rats:
Brown rats
Black rats
Brown rats or Norwegian rat are omnivorous scavengers and feed on almost anything. They also eat grains and cereals.
A research conducted by Martin Schein, founder of the Animal Behavior Society in 1964,
on the diet of brown rats resulted in understanding the food preferences of the brown rats. The study showed that scrambled eggs, macaroni, cheese and cooked corn kernels were the most- preferred foods of brown rats. Brown rats require 1/2 to 1 ounce of water each day.
Black rat is also known as roof rat. They reside in tress pines, palm trees and mixed scrub along the Mediterranean coast and are plant -eating rats . Though black rats usually prefer eating moist fruits, vegetables and grains, they can feed on anything when living in close proximity to man. Black rats avoids eating meat. They are happy feeding on cereal grains, chopped apples, sweet potatoes, melons, prunes, pineapple, cookies, dough nuts, sweet chocolate candy, peanut butter, and tomatoes.
They also need water but less than the brown rats, approximately 15 ml every day.
Compared to a mouse, rats consume food in a larger quantity in one sitting.
A mouse is an omnivore and feed on meat and dead bodies of other mice. It has been observed that mouse are self cannibals who can feed on their own tails during starvation.
A mouse also eats grains, fruits, and seeds for a regular diet. This is the reason we hear so many incidents of crops being destroyed by mice.
On the other hand, rats food choices depend upon social interactions that occurs at places far away from feeding sites. Rats smell foods on the fur, whiskers and especially the breath of other rats due to their strong senses and prefer foods consumed by those rats previously.