Ratings Explained: Interspecies Interaction
Lately Iâve been seeing a lot of interspecies interaction photos and videos. By interspecies interaction I mean a rat interacting with other household pets such as dogs, cats, or rabbits. This is unsafe for both parties for many reasons, which Iâll be detailing in this post.
First off, rats are prey animals, but they are also opportunistic hunters. This means that to a rat, another animal is either a potential death sentence or potential food.
- Birds and smaller rodents are generally seen as prey to rats. Rats have been known to kill birds and smaller animals such as mice, and should not be allowed interaction under any circumstances. This includes through the cage bars - a rat can pull limbs, feathers, or entire animals through the bars depending on their size and can seriously injure or kill an animal that way.
- Rabbits are also prey animals, but they are extremely territorial and capable of causing a lot of harm to another animal if they so choose. Their kicks and bites could seriously hurt a rat. Rats are also capable of fighting back and may scratch the rabbit or even bite it if the rat is genetically predisposed to aggression. If your rabbit is allowed to free roam near the rat cage, make sure to put up a baby gate or other barrier so they canât access the cage.
- Reptiles⌠well, this one should be a bit obvious. While not every snake or lizard is big enough to kill a rat, simply being in the presence of a predator is extremely stressful to the rat because they think theyâre going to be eaten. And if a reptile is small enough not to harm the rat, the rat will likely see it as food and react accordingly. Fortunately, reptiles and amphibians tend to stay in their own enclosures most of the time, so unless there is intentional interaction on the ownerâs part this shouldnât be an issue.
- Cats are a huge risk to rats and ideally shouldnât even be allowed in the same room as the rat cage. If they are, the cage should be on a table or shelf that the cat canât reach, or should be blocked off by some other physical barrier. Cats have bacteria in their saliva and under their claws that can make a rat sick or even kill them if it gets into their bloodstream. This can happen from the cat biting the rat, but it can also happen if your ârat friendlyâ cat is grooming the rat, and the rat later grooms itself, since it will end up ingesting the cat saliva. In the end, cats are predators with instincts. Even though they may be very sweet with you, cats are still predators and should be treated according to their actual needs and instincts, instead of projecting human emotions of cross-species friendship onto them. All it takes is one quick movement from the rat that triggers the catâs hunting instincts.
- Dogs are pretty similar to cats in this regard. They are predators and their bites or licks can make a rat sick, and should be kept away from even caged rats as much as possible. If the dog absolutely needs to have access to the rat room â for example, if the dog is a service animal â they can sometimes be trained to stay a few feet away from the cage at all times. However, if you have the option of simply not allowing the dog access to the rat cage entirely, that is the safest option.
Now, there are many more animals that exist and that you may have thought about letting interact with your rat, but hopefully this gives you an idea of why these interactions are generally a bad idea. Itâs always unsafe for at least one of the animals involved, and generally stresses out the rat since theyâre prey animals. Rats love playing with their humans and each other; they donât need to play with the cat or dog too.
