# rat vs mice



## kimmon (Jul 15, 2009)

HI, over here, rat are for pets while mice are for other pets food...

anyway, what is the difference of pets and mice?
thanks alot


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

??? What do you mean?


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## kimmon (Jul 15, 2009)

in pet store,mice are sold as snake food, where rat are sold as pets

mice is only cost 2 dollar, where rat cost 15 dollar
but, what is actually the differance between rat and mouse?


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## Crasher (Jun 15, 2009)

I don't really know what you're looking for, so here are a couple of sites to get you started:
http://pet-mice.com/
http://hubpages.com/hub/Rats_Vs_Mice_as_Pets
http://www.petrats.org/

Now, don't take every single thing as fact, supplement these pages with some of your own research.


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## Ratnoob523 (May 8, 2009)

Rats and mice are both sold as snake food in pet stores. Rats probably only cost more because they are bigger. 

As for other differences.. I'm no expert but I would say rats are larger in size, more intelligent, and more social than mice. Those are probably the primary differences.


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## kimmon (Jul 15, 2009)

Ratnoob523 said:


> Rats and mice are both sold as snake food in pet stores. Rats probably only cost more because they are bigger.
> 
> As for other differences.. I'm no expert but I would say rats are larger in size, more intelligent, and more social than mice. Those are probably the primary differences.


rat are only sold as pet here...

i would not be abble to tell the differance between mice n rats


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## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

kimmon said:


> i would not be abble to tell the differance between mice n rats


Are you sure? :-\ Have a search on the internet for rats and mice. Rats are *significantly* larger.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Mice and rats are very different. I am now a new owner of a mouse and am researching like crazy and learning a LOT.

Rats once bonded with a human NEED interaction, and rat friends...whereas most mice are more handsoff pets that you watch and adore, and only females can be in colonies as males kept together will fight to the death.

I am lucky because my little Nimby is very docile and doesn't seem to mind handling and running around on me (mouse), whereas the rats can end up more like little dogs, needing to be with you, having Out time an hour a day, etc. They can come when they are called (some do), can be littertrained (some do, most of mine don't LOL).

And they look entirely different.

Baby rat about 4 weeks old









My new 8 week old mouse (wild-type domestic rather than a fancy mouse)









and a 5.5 week old rat..black and white Smoosh (her mom is beige and white)









typical fancy mouse


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## ration1802 (Sep 25, 2007)

A size comparison for you also;

A full grown male rat compared to a full grown male mouse.


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

But kimmon, please realize that you cannot have a rat in the same cage as a mouse. The rat will kill the mouse.
Although a mouse looks like a miniature rat, it is a completely different animal and pet.
it's fun to enjoy mice by observing them while they live their lives.
I am never able to observe my rats living their ratty lives because when I try, they see me and want to get out of their cage to hang out with me.
I can guess what they do when I am not there by the mess they have made during the night but I can never see them actually work on stuff like that.

Do you have any pets right now or are you searching for the right one?


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## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

lilspaz68 said:


> only females can be in colonies as males kept together will fight to the death.


Some groups of males do get along well, so that's not always the case. When I do work experience at an animal research unit there are groups of males that do well together. Some do end up needing to be separated, but not all.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Stace87 said:


> lilspaz68 said:
> 
> 
> > only females can be in colonies as males kept together will fight to the death.
> ...


I am now on Mouse Forums (not the same at all as rat forums) but they all agree that males living together for their lives is rare. Occasionally siblings can be kept together but most end up fighting, and need to be separated.


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

I had one group of mouse males live together until old age. Another had to separated at two month of age. Both groups were brothers and had always been together.
I won't risk it.


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## MissHinasaki (Jul 29, 2009)

Mice are tiny, less social with humans, have TERRIBLE smelling pee (need really well ventilated cages so ammonia doesn't build up), but are still quite adorable. I've heard that they can be trained to do tricks but that takes a lot more patience than rats. They're very similar in a lot of ways but you can really tell the difference in their behavior regarding interactions with humans. I think it's mostly due to their size. We're just too big for them to really grasp. They make good pets but not the greatest companions (in my opinion). It's probably terrible to say this, but I almost think that they're cuter than rats.  It's just because I can't get over how ridiculously tiny they are!


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

MissHinasaki said:


> It's probably terrible to say this, but I almost think that they're cuter than rats.  It's just because I can't get over how ridiculously tiny they are!


I secretly agree; I can never get over how cute they are, everything they do is cute. My hubby gets tired of hearing it sometimes. But my rats are the greatest buddies, OK my dogs too.


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