what is the difference between a rat and a mouse?

[Gary]

What is the difference between a Rat and a Mouse?

I aquired a mouse from my coworker, saved it from the mouth of a snake. I noticed in the pet store that the rats come in three sizes; small, medium, and large. The small rats look very similiar to my mouse. So what is the difference? I'm wondering if my mouse is really a rat?  And what would happen if I put a small rat in with my mouse

Slick forum by the way!

[Louise]

I do not think you should mix rats with mice, regardless of the size of the rat.  The rats would most likely attack the mouse.  I remember reading somewhere that if you keep rats in your house that mice will stay away, they can smell the rats.  Not sure why your pet store has three different sizes of rats unless they are different ages/sexes - or I have heard that bad breeding can cause rats to give birth to smaller babies (sounds reasonable).  Hope that helps a bit

[Jodi]

Unfortunately, that pet store is catering to the snake owners. Pretty much the only difference between the rats they have divided by "sizes" is their age, I'm sure. They apparently sell (or believe they do, anyway) most of their rats as snake feeders, which is really sad!

Rats and mice are two different species. Yes, baby rats do look pretty similar to mice, but look carefully at the noses, ears, etc. Rats have a slightly longer face/nose, and mice usually have bigger ears proportionally than do rats. Also, unless the pet store is irresponsible enough to be selling rats that are too young to be weaned (which many do, unfortunately!), even their youngest rats should be slightly larger than the mice.

I agree that it's not at all a good idea to put a rat in with another kind of animal. Rats will get significantly larger than will a mouse, and a rat would most likely kill a mouse or any other smaller animal. Rats, however, are actually extremely smart, friendly, and sociable and do better in groups of 2 or more rats (same sex, of course, unless you have one or both spayed and/or neutered). I don't know much about mice, but your mouse might enjoy having another mouse friend, too.  

[Gary]

Jodi,
thanks for your input.

Now, let me make sure I've got this right. Rats are pretty much all the same basic size, and the ones that are smaller, are just younger ones, and not just a smaller variety?

Interesting. Learning something new everyday about Rats.

[kmw]

Rats are pretty much all the same basic size, and the ones that are smaller, are just younger ones, and not just a smaller variety?

In a nutshell, yes    I've seen mention of dwarf rats, but if they are actually dwarves, they are quite rare, and would certainly not be found in random pet shops!  To give you an idea of how much rats can grow:  When I got my boys as babies, they fit in the palm of my hand.  Now they top the scales at 1.3 lbs, and are about 13" from nose to base of tail!  My mom thinks they look more like woodchucks, not rats!  

[Gary]

Man that's huge!    Really? I think mine maybe 1/2 that length.  Is that fairly common for Rats to get that massive? Hope mine do. (they're girls)  

Now they top the scales at 1.3 lbs, and are about 13" from nose to base of tail!  My mom thinks they look more like woodchucks, not rats!  

[Jodi]

  Yup, my boys, as full-grown adults, have ranged from 325 grams to a whopping 765 grams! That big boy was Chewie, who became extremely "squishy" as he got older... he was a sweetie-pie but LOVED to eat!   His belly dragged on the floor when he walked. Funny thing was, when we got a couple of new babies, Chewie absolutely fell in love with them and followed them everywhere. During "free-range" time in the evenings, the babies would do their usual boinky popcorn bouncing and Chewie would imitate them. Then they'd climb the sides of the cage, and poor Chewie could never seem to figure out that he was just too big to follow!

Chewie was by far our biggest. Most of our boys have averaged around 350-400 grams at full growth. I've only ever had one girlie rat, and she weighed about 300 grams at full growth. It's my understanding that the girlies don't get nearly as big as the boys do. I would imagine 300 grams is probably about average to high-average for the gals.

[kmw]

I think my boys are on the higher side of "normal", but I know there are bigger, if not fatter, rats out there!    Females are generally smaller, but I bet you could expect 10" from nose to base of tail.  My first rat was a girl, but that was a long time ago, and I don't remember many specifics about her

[Tara]

Unfortunately, that pet store is catering to the snake owners. Pretty much the only difference between the rats they have divided by "sizes" is their age, I'm sure. They apparently sell (or believe they do, anyway) most of their rats as snake feeders, which is really sad!

That's exactly right.  I worked at a pet store that sold the rats primarily as feeders.  (That was a very, very difficult thing to do, and a large part of why I finally left)   When the rats reached a certain size they were moved from the small cage to the medium cage  or whatever.  They also raised the price on them as they got bigger.   (Big boogers.)  

[Grace Jr]

The reason your petstore has rats sold by the size, is because they are being sold as feeders.  A small, medium, and large rat are all identical, aside from being different ages.  The small rats are still young, while large ones are usually a year or more old.

Mice and rats are incredibly different.  They may look alike, but they sure don't act the same!  lol

The biggest difference is mice are smaller, so they need less space (a 10 gallon tank can hold 3 females), and less food.

Their diet is different than that of rats, and consists mainly of bread and grains.  I can provide you with some links to homemade mouse diets if you wish.

Female mice are just as social as rats, but male mice (unless siblings who have never been seperated, or neutered males) usually can't be housed together.  If tehy (or the female) has been neutered, they can obviously live with the other sex without risk of pregnancy.

I have found male mice make better companions, although they do have an odor.  Some say it is way too strong, but I hardly noticed it when I had male mice.  Males are more cuddly than females, and make good shoulder/pocket mice.  Females never want to sit still, and are usually more nervous than males.

Mice as a whole won't come when called.  Both rats and mice are smart, but rats are mroe like labs.  They will learn things so they can please the owner.  A mouse is more like a sighthound.  They will learn tricks to please you, *if* it is something they feel like doing.  If a rat gets loose in the house, call their name and wave a treat around and they will usually come scampering out to get the treat.  Mice won't usually come out, and can be missing for hours, or even days before they are found.

When my brother had a mouse, teh cat knocked over the tank, and we thought she was dead, even though there was no body.  A week later, we found her hiding under the stove when the cats were trying to get under there...

Those are really the main differences, and really, despite their being less people-social  (well, females anyway) than rats are, and harder to handle, they do make great pets.

OH!  And definetly don't put the mouse in with rats!!  They are natural enemies in the wild, and rats *will* kill mice if given the chance.  They may be fine with them for a while, but you never know when instinct will kick in.

Last summer, when I was living with my dad, the rats and mice were all in a room together.  The females were in a 55 gallon aquarium (talk about spoiled, there were only 3 girls!), and the male was in a converted sterilite bin on the floor.  To make a long story short, one day Daisy (My ever so sweet, second most social rat ever) escaped from the cage.  She went over to the boy's cage, and killed Bosley by biting him through the wire mesh on the lid of the bin.  I've also heard stories of rats ging into different rooms to kill mice, as well as rats killing hamster families and such that required an effort to get at.  In short, don't mix the rats and mouse.

[Maggie's Mom]

Well, I unfortunatley know the difference to well to explain...but, I have adopted a couple unweaned or barely from petshops, and they were slightly larger than mice.  At that young of an age, they are generally wider, and less slim looking.  At an age at which they would be even almost the size of a mouse, their eyes seem to be closed much more often than a mouse and their ears are smaller in proportion.  Also, it seems to me, that with a mouse if you look at the tail, it looks like thin yarn.  For a rat, I once accidently mistook a tail for a worm (poor shadow, I think I squealed, but it really did kinda look like a worm).  Dunno if this helps...perhaps pics would?

[Grace Jr]

Here's some pics of mice.  Can't pass up a chance to show off my mice from the past.  

This was my brother's mouse Avalon.


Akasha, a fawn female mouse.  (She's standing on a duplo shelf)


This is Ariana, an agouti broken female, climbing down from the Duplo shelf.



Oh!  One other difference between rats and mice...  There are some color types that only occur in mice (dutch, fox, tan, etc), while others only occur in rats (hooded, masked, etc).  Depending on what color type your mouse/rat is, that will show for sure which species it really is, although it's probably a mouse.  By 5 weeks rats are almost always larger than adult mice.

[Suebee]

What is the difference between a Rat and a Mouse?

About two pounds.

*rim shot*  

Sorry... everyone else answered it so well, there was nothing left for me to do but make a joke.

[Tara]

ROFL!!!  

That was funny.   Totally unexpected!  hahahaha

[WeeRaffins]