# Rats scared by dogs



## Ratlettes (Mar 29, 2016)

I've been planning on adopting a pitbull but very far from now. I have rats and I will keep having rats in the future and it kind of worries me if they'll be absolutely terrorized by such a large dog? Today my sweetest lil guy met a tiny 4 month old shih tzu mix and he ran so fast as soon as he smelled her and hid for hours (I barely even caught him later he was acting very scared but from his body language I knew he wanted to cooperate but he didn't want to keep his guard down) ugh and that's very hard to think of. I love dogs. I know I'll adopt one later when I get a pet friendly house but I'd like to know if any of you people have a rat dog friendship going on or even have them coexisting with each other?


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

You can see on Youtube numerous vids on rats and other animals co-existing happily. It all depends on the personality of the animals involved if they will get along


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

I have 2 dogs & 7 cats. The rats will likely need time to adjust to the new presence of the animal. But over time they should be fine and not afraid. 

That being said I would take precautions- a secure cage that the dog can not get to unsupervised. Dogs have been known to destroy cages to get to rats. 
The dog should be given plenty of training before being allowed near the cage or in the same room as the rats.
I also highly suggest reading about dog body language. I see so many videos of people with dogs and the dog is throwing up every stress signal in the world & people are all like awww its cute. There is a popular video that gets passed around with a dog and rat in it, and the dog is showing serious signals that is so scary & dangerous and people just think it is cute. 

Sad story- I dog sit sometimes. I had two dogs staying with me. I am always so careful. My rat room door is shut and I have a tall gate in front of it. On top of that I never allow the dogs being free in the house without me right there. I had left my phone upstairs and stupidly just ran upstairs to get it. I was gone less then 2 mins. In that time the dogs somehow managed to get the door open, jump over the gate and attack my rats through the cage. The cage was very bent up, and one rat was injured  These were the sweetest most friendly loving dogs in the world. They were super sweet and loving to the cats even. People often think their beloved sweet pet couldn't harm a fly but it is instinct.

I never suggest letting them interact. It is so risky to even take the chance. One accident and you can't take it back & I couldn't handle that I let that happen. 
For every cute story of them getting along and being BFFs there are probably 10 stories where it ended in injury or death. 

My dogs are not allowed in my rat room. If I have my rats out about in the house my large dog is not in the room and my other dog is well enough trained that she stays away. My dogs are lovely but excitable and while I do not think they would attack or try to kill my rats, I don't trust them that an accident would not happen. 

But you can easily manage to keep pets separate and have them both.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

I agree with Moonkissed post. I have a cat along with my rats (and pet snakes) and I keep them all separated. I have the small animals in a room the cat doesn't have access to. I think that is the safest way. 

With dogs, you have a lot of variability too... via breed and individual. I wouldn't personally adopt / buy any breed of terrier or hound that has strong prey-drive. Terriers (including pits) are bred to have high prey drive, and so, it is hard for them to live in the same house with small mammals without wanting to get at them. That is just their nature. You can train them, but given the right opportunity, they would probably go after the rats. I have a similar incident to what moonkissed stated involving my cat and some geckos. I left the room door open for about 5 minutes and in that time the cat knocked over both glass enclosures and managed to kill one gecko and severely injure the other. And keep in mind these are nocturnal geckos that don't move or do anything to draw attention during the day. My otherwise lazy cat that won't even kill bugs did this given a slight opportunity. 

IMO, you can have species that would naturally eat each other in the same home, you just have to take precautions and not let them interact.. It is working well for me at least.


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## Ratlettes (Mar 29, 2016)

Pet rats and snakes?? That's a paradox


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## SaberKatt (Mar 14, 2016)

I have two dogs and my roommate has a dog. I know my Akita won't do anything if I tell her not to, but I also know she will WANT to eat them. She recently brought my roommate a dead opossum as a gift. It's what she does. My elkhound doesn't want to hurt rats. He just wants to kiss them. But he is also very active and COULD hurt them on accident. My roommate's dog is a rat terrier. So. None of the dogs are allowed to interact with the rats. They're not allowed in the room with the cages usually, and if they are they're supervised so I can make sure everyone is calm and happy. When the rats are out, the dogs are not in the same space. 

I DO let my cats interact with the rats so long as everything is calm and happy. My oldest cat is scared of them, so he usually prefers to be in another room when my rats are out and about. My foster enjoys watching, but rarely interacts. And my black cat wants to interact, but she's not a hunter and she's usually very calm and gentle - especially with the girls. Sometimes the boys just want to chill out and sleep, and that seems to offend her. xD

The snake I'm long term babysitting is never in the same room with the rats. She used to be, but I think being constantly around the scent of prey was stressful for her. The rats didn't care one way or another about her presence.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Ratlettes- Not as much as you'd think. The snakes eat f/t rodents which I purchase online (they come shipped in dry ice). i don't feed them my pet rats. 

Saberkat- I keep my reptiles and rodents in the same room and have noticed no signs of stress on either end. Like anything else, the snakes became habituated to the smell of rats in the room and now do not react. They know (somehow) the difference between the odor of the f/t rodents and the ones in the room air... Part of it may be due to proximity as I keep the rats on the other end of the room so they only smell a rodent "close" to them if it is feeding time. The rats have no idea the snakes are there and IMO don't recognize their odor as a predator or threat.


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

I have a dog cat and rats. I feel like they get used to it. My dog is actually scared of my rats. Probably because she is afraid of doing something wrong because she knows the difference between my pets and the outdoor cat who lives on my street. That being said the first reason I got a critter nation was because my cat knocked over a hamster cage a long time ago. The hamster was fine by the way. So get a secure cage and make sure your dog is trained and you should be fine.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

We have a 100lb German Shepherd/Border Collie mix. Anga has cleaned his teeth and plays with him. She actually torments him! I have a Chihauhau mix who plays with the rats. I have 14 cats, (in the country) that play with the rats. One of them is scared of the rats. Anga, and now Pebbles as well, routinely charge and chase that cat around the house. 

All five rats, two dogs and 14 cats get along. Except for the scardey-cat, they play together, cuddle together and dine together.

This is a video of Reese getting his teeth cleaned.



And here is Anga spooning with my 30 lb cat, Ben.




As to pit bulls, they were not actually bred to have high prey drive. They were bred to be nanny dogs. *think, Little Rascals*. They were bred to protect children.

In my previous job, working directly with the public for animals, in many cities around Central Texas, I talked to many, many people who had pit bulls and children. I think just about every one of those people told me the dog was so protective of the children that the parents had to put the dog in another room to correct the child. When the parent got upset, angry with the child, the dog steps in and won't let them near the child. I heard story after story of pit bulls that had physical injuries from the kids, but never ever turned on them, still loved them and still protected them. One lady told me that her kid was drowning in the bath tub. She said she wouldn't have known if not for pit bull alerting her of the situation.

I have also had a pit bull myself. They are excellent judges of character. If my pit didn't like someone, neither did I. George was always correct in his assessment of people. He took abuse from my cats, protected the cats.

When one of my cats had a litter of kittens, he knew she didn't want him in the room while she was giving birth. He stood in the door way all night, protective and concerned for my cat. Later that night, after giving birth, she went to eat and drink water. My 'vicious' pit pull picked up the hours old kittens in his mouth and took them to mom. I'm not the only one with stories like this. 

I'm not a dog person, but if I did want another one of my own, I would definitely get another pit bull. They are _the most_ loyal and protective dogs I've ever met.

In my 3 1/2 years experience working with the public for animals, the _rest_ of the local horror stories about pits usually got around to me from the_ other_ people who were there when it was happening. The fact that the pit was actually protecting someone, be it another animal, person or property, usually doesn't get mentioned in the media. People like drama. The rest of the story about pit bulls isn't dramatic, it doesn't sell and people have a swayed view of pits.

Now of course their will always be the exception. But even in those cases, there was always another unreported side of the story. In those cases, the other side I heard was about the long term, severe abuse of those pits.

Although I'm not a dog lover, it pains me that such a loyal and protective breed is stigmatized by the media and people who've _never even had a pit bull_.

Like I said, there will always be exceptions, but there will always be exceptions for all other breeds as well. They just don't get talked about.

So I'm done now sticking up for pit bulls. Thanks for listening.


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## Ratlettes (Mar 29, 2016)

Pit bulls are amazing dogs, and they do deserve recognition for the good in them. I hate how rap culture, dog fighting, and animal abuse gave them the bully breed title. Like... They're actual teddy bears, thank you for that lovely rant.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

This is a bit off topic, but I think it should be said...

It was not my intention to call anyone out on this thread or sound judgemental of anyone here, but I' think it may appear that way.
I can have a little problem with not choosing the best words or giving enough consideration to things I say sometimes. It's gotten a little out of check as of late. If anyone feels offended, please accept my apology.


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## Ratlettes (Mar 29, 2016)

I don't see how you were being hurtful, all is good. And throwback to when I was lucky enough to take this precious photo when Pouches looked slightly like a baby pit bull


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