Do pet rats deter pest rats?

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PlumpusMaximus

plump as a wump
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
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This is just a really random question I've been mulling over and unable to find any information on... Given the fact that rats are quite territorial, does the presence of pet rats in a home (assuming they are able to free-roam often enough to mark about the place) act as a deterrent to wild pest rats?

On the one hand, I feel like it might... I mean, a roving wild rat looking for a place to settle seeing/smelling another rat's mark might just convince them to keep moving.

But then on the other hand, my vet mentioned that she's seen cases of unspayed female rats escaping (in the house) and being impregnated by wild rats before they were caught again. That had to come as quite a surprise to their owners, heh. But - females in heat seems like it might act as an attractant, bringing wild rats in rather than keeping them away. Does anybody have any knowledge or experience with this? I'm intensely curious!
 
Your vet is right...if you have unspayed females, that would be more of an attraction for wild rats. As for males, I really can't see pet males being able to scare away wild male rats. They may even attract wild female rats but only if those wild rats got lost or kicked out of their colony. Wild rats live in huge colonies and only the males might move away to start their own.
 
I gave my parents some of my dirty "rat blankets" and it drove the mice out of their home, no traps required. They folded up the rat blankets and put them in the problem area and the mice disappeared within a week and haven't been back since. I would try this for wild rats, but I don't know of anyone suffering from a wild rat problem.
 
My friend in Florida has constant rat problems (as well as mice), which temporarily disappear every time I move in with Moe and Gus , and reappear within 2 weeks of us leaving. This year there was was a female who lived upstairs in the kitchen who did not leave when we arrived, but moved downstairs instead. She was pregnant, and seemed to be afraid of having 2 unfamiliar males in the house.
 
This year there was was a female who lived upstairs in the kitchen who did not leave when we arrived, but moved downstairs instead. She was pregnant, and seemed to be afraid of having 2 unfamiliar males in the house.

Makes sense. Wild males will kill the babies of other males so she was trying to protect her babies.
 
After we moved out of my exes house three distinct different rats moved in. We are still fighting to live trap them. One is a hooded so its not wild and its not one of mine so someones else's abandoned or escaped rat found the house. But other then the baby wildgirl, who escaped after I nursed her, we'd never seen them before I moved the rats to my new place. Now my ex hears and sees signs of them daily. When I was there I almost had wildgirl, but the furnace kicking on scared her as she as in the intake vent. I can see how she's been travelling around the house.

Funny that my ex knows lots about rats but he seemed to forget after we left. He didn't think she'd escape the large live trap, if she set it off at all.
 
Your vet is right...if you have unspayed females, that would be more of an attraction for wild rats. As for males, I really can't see pet males being able to scare away wild male rats. They may even attract wild female rats but only if those wild rats got lost or kicked out of their colony. Wild rats live in huge colonies and only the males might move away to start their own.
I agree.
 
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