Someone posted a youtube video about someone on Animal Planet catching "wild" (aka domesticated) rats. They said that rats hate mint in that video. My rats love mint tea. (I don't let them have the whole thing of tea, just sips here and there.) =P

 

My friend was horrified that I let my rats lick my hands. "You do realise they carry diseases don't you!?" This is a guy who has a PHD - how can he be so daft? Haha!

 

To be fair, rats do carry diseases, however humans carry more diseases that me as a human can catch.

 

I wonder if they were Gambian pouch rats. I am fascinated by those guys.

 

Maybe it was! He was saying these rats in Nigeria were huge and long, not round and hunched like pet rats. I shall send him pics and see what he thinks.

 

To be fair, I would probably try and avoid wild rats in Nigeria too

I've had several people AND a book about fancy rats tell me I shouldn't feed them meat because 'they will get a taste for blood and bite you'. Oh yes now that you mention it I always feel slightly cannibalistic after some KFC.

 

Our former gardener from Jamaica swore up and down that rats would steal the breath of a baby. I tried to tell him that's not really true, and he insisted, "It is!"

I think that in less developed parts of the world, it's a way of survival to fear rats and other animals that could potentially steal your food or contaminate the environment. There is less formal education in those countries as well, so when a baby dies of unknown causes, they look for something to blame.

Here in the developed world, we have the luxury not only of keeping "vermin" as pets, but breeding them to look adorable!

 

I thought cats stole the breath of sleeping babies. Maybe we should just watch out for any ats.

 

I've met a few people who are horrified of rats or disgusted that I have rats as companions, and so far I've heard the usual; "You have rats?! What if you catch the plague?!" "You keep them in your room with you?! Don't you know they'll eat you in your sleep?!" "You keep rats together? I thought they were cannibalistic."

Haven't heard many myths though...err, besides that typical paranoia. I get the "eat you in your sleep" one a lot from people who have never handled rats before in their lives. Though it's a misconception and not a myth, I also have people insisting that rats carry the plague. All rats. All of them.

 

Rats can cure autism and mental illness... (which they can't) is a legend from somewhere in India or South Asia.

When we were out with Fuzzy Rat we got stalked by South Asians who wanted their autistic children to hold or touch our rat. One father even stole Fuzzy Rat from us and ran her over to his toddler who of course couldn't hold a live rat.

Two sets of parents, one with a mildly autistic girl and one with a mildly autistic boy did have kids that could touch and hold Fuzzy Rat, and they all but took the interaction as a sign of a miracle cure. Most parents were disappointed, Their children would follow Fuzzy Rat, but never come close enough to touch her... Somehow I suspect the word got out that there was a miracle rat at our park because for the first summer we were there a week never went by without a young Indian couple or another showing up with their autistic kid looking to meet our rat. It was kind of creepy.

I had to explain to the parents that it was a good sign if their children could relate to a small animal, but it wasn't likely the interaction that would make them better. Although there may be a couple of parents that disagree, to my objective knowledge, Fuzzy Rat never cured an autistic child. She was amazing in many ways but miracle cure wasn't one of them.

 

Rats drink blood is one I've heard.


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I've actually heard, that animals are very good for autistic people, not exactly a miracle though. there is that temple in India though with all the rats. For those that haven't seen it, youtube it, it's pretty interesting, yet bazaar.

On rats drinking blood-I imagine any predator animal would drink blood if the opportunity arose. I'm guessing they mean in more vampire sort of drink blood way though.

 

Well, this isn't a myth, as far as I know...my mother grew up in Africa and once told me that rats would sneak into the huts of the locals at night and eat the thick, dead skin off their feet while they were sleeping!!! ugh!

 

I was thinking the same thing re Gambian pouched rats -they are huge!

 

My grandfather has a horrible, terrible fear of rodents. When he was in Vietnam, the wild rats always chewed on people in their sleep. He has night terrors about them. So, I've never told him I have any.

Well, since our state is trying to ban my ASF rats, I showed up at a meeting that made the news about how the local pet community is trying to fight the "Wild and Dangerous Animal" bans. He was like..."I saw you! You're trying to keep those face-eaters! They're going to eat you alive in your sleep!!"

Everyone else I know wants to complain about my vipers. Not grandpa, no. The rats "always go for your eyes."

 

I have 2 dogs, a conure, a ferret, 3 rats and 4 chickens. If I fell over dead I'm pretty sure it would be the chickens that would eat me. I love my chickens and they are very sweet but they eat absolutely anything and they have a zero tolerance to being sick. If one is not well they will pick on it and I have to bring it in till it's well cause they will kill it.

 

After speaking to my friend I think it was Gambian pouch rats that he would see in Nigeria. He also spoke of some ugly rats called Nkapi in Igbo, that apparently smelled foul. I think this must be some type of shrew rather than a rat as he said it has a long nose and weird teeth.

 

Not really a myth but when I first told my friend I had rats, he asked if I wanted some of his traps, of course I immediately told him I kept them as pets, which he responded "But there are no sewers round here? Are you sure you should have them, they are wild animals, I don't think its legal" Ah the many joys of us rat mummy's/daddy's

 

I used to go to church with a lady that REFUSED to let her kids near my home because of my "Infestation". Two rats in a cage in your room apparently justifies infestation. She would even go so far as to recommend exterminators and ask me if I was up to date on all my vaccinations before she'd let her kids near me. I found it rather insulting and asked her to stop, but to this day she still does it.

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