A Brief Look at Rats In Popular Culture

Image from Parlour Magazine

Yes, that's a picture of Remy from the 2007 Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille. Why? Because it's one of the few major motion pictures to portray rats in a positive light. I mean, yes, Remy's ratty kin are not the cleanest of animals, but the fact that there's a lovable rat protagonist is still a step in the right direction.

Mice have been getting positive attention ever since Mickey took to the screen in the late 1920s, but rats have always seemed to be trapped in a negative light. I've made up a short list of the many times rats have had a villainous or negative role.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin features a plague of rats that overtakes a town, destroying food and driving people out of their homes. It's the people's desperation to rid themselves of the rats that attracts the piper.

The main antagonist in the Disney film The Great Mouse Detective is a massive rat, Professor Rattigan, who seeks to seize control of the British monarchy. While he's later revealed to be a mouse, it's his status as a rat throughout the film that establishes him as a villain.

In the film The Tale of Despereaux, rats play the greedy villains who kidnap the small kingdom's princess.

The beloved children's story Charlotte's Web features Templeton, a rat who is portrayed as greedy, gluttonous, and lazy. While he does help Wilbur quite a bit, it would be nice if he didn't have to be bribed into doing all of his good deeds.

The horror films Willard and Ben (Willard's sequel) feature hyper-intelligent rats with a penchant for attacking and occasionally killing people.

I'll leave you with that, but I think you get my point. Apart from Remy, the only rats I can immediately think of that are portrayed positively in pop culture are those in The Secret of NIMH (to a degree; they're still kind of scary) and Rat-In-A-Hat from the Australian children's show Bananas In Pyjamas.

I'll talk more about the reasoning behind these portrayals in a later post, so for now, tell me your favourite (or least favourite) movie, show, game, or book that features rats. I'm sure there are tonnes more than the ones I've mentioned.

The Empathetic Rat

Potato and Goma being "trapped"

This article shows another amazing way that rats are more than they may seem. Two rats were housed together for an extended period of time and were later moved into a new area in which one of them was restrained. It seems that the distress of the trapped rats affected their free cohorts to the point that they quickly began trying to free their cage mates. When placed in the same situation once more, an overwhelming number of free rats immediately moved to free the trapped rats, doing so even before opening a similar container full of food. Experiments like this have allowed rats to join a growing category of animals that are considered capable of empathy.

Fishing for Peas

If you've never let your rats fish for peas, I highly recommend it. The basic set-up can be found here. As you can see from watching Goma in the above video, fishing peas out of a bowl of water is quite the engaging activity for rats. Not to mention that it's a great way to help them associate getting wet with positive outcomes. I haven't graduated my boys to deeper water yet since, as I've mentioned before, they haven't had the best experiences with water in the past. Anyway, if you've been trying to think of a new game for your rats, definitely give this one a try (who doesn't want to play a game where the prize is food every time?).

As a side-note, my apologies for the upside-down video. I corrected it, but it flipped back after uploading, so I'm not quite sure how to fix it at this point.

Rat Addiction Comic

Title page of the Rat Park comic

If you recall my post about rats and addiction, you may like this excellent comic. It's based on the same study, but goes into much more detail than the original article I linked, as well as further expanding on the experiment's results. Not to mention that the art is great.

Rats and Chinese Food Safety

Photo from stock.xchng

If you don’t like to think about rats in any form of distress, I suggest skipping this one.

I’m sure many of you have already heard about the Chinese rat meat scandal, but, if you haven’t, here’s a quick rundown. Similar to the way some cultures see dogs as just another meal, it recently came to light that many people in China also consume rats. It’s uncomfortable to think of your favourite furry friends on someone’s dinner plate. Unfortunately, most of the people eating rat meat were just as uncomfortable with the discovery, given that they thought it was lamb. Long story short, at the beginning of last month, a huge crime ring was uncovered in which people were catching rats and refashioning them to resemble lamb meat. Not only were consumers being duped for who knows how long, but they also have no way to know where or what conditions the unfortunate rats came from. Obviously, this mess has caused a huge uproar over food and other regulations in China. You can read more about this event and some of the country’s past food safe issues in this article. It’s things like this that make me glad I live in a country with relatively strict food-related regulations.

Trust Training

If you're feeling a disconnect with your rats, I highly recommend checking out the video linked above (her other videos are good, too). Depending on their personality, rats can be fairly skittish and distrustful when you first get them and, if treated improperly, these traits can actually get worse. The video goes over some good ways to help gain your rats' trust and breed familiarity with them, as well as giving some suggestions about what you should avoid doing until they're more comfortable with you. I've been using some of the tips in the video to help with my attempts to train my boys and it really seems to help keep them calmer (although it'll take some more work to move their focus toward the words and actions rather than just the food).

Rat Addictions

Photo from Brin de Folie

Thanks to the help of a number of rats, this study uncovered some interesting possibilities in regards to the addictive qualities of some drugs. In the experiment, rats were split up into two groups; one group was placed in a spacious environment with plenty of food, accommodations, and stimuli (ie. "Rat Park"), while the other group was placed in standard lab cages. Before being split up, all of the rats were given morphine for over a month, then each group had the option of drinking clean water or water laced with the drug. While the caged rats tended towards the drug-laced water, the majority of Rat Park residents opted for the clean water.

Basically, the results of the experiment suggest that the rats' reason for choosing the morphine-infused water was based less on an already established addiction and more on unpleasant living conditions. The Rat Park rats were far more comfortable than the caged rats and so could derive comfort from other sources. Granted, some of the Rat Park residents chose to continue taking the drugs, but the difference between the two groups of rats is still quite surprising. Not only did this experiment open new doors for drug research (to a degree, as it was largely overlooked), but I think it also helps to illustrate just how important a positive environment is for an animal's happiness, whether they're rat, human, or otherwise.

How to Make a Water Rat

If your rats are anything like mine, they probably aren't huge fans of the water. If you'd like to change that - to help your rats cool down in the summer, teach them new tricks, help them cope with baths, or just to provide them with some more engaging activities - then check out the video above. I think it does an excellent job of demonstrating appropriate set-ups while also stressing the importance of taking it slow and gradually easing your rats into the activity.

I may or may not give this one a try. I suspect that Potato and Goma have had one too many baths for them to ever be completely comfortable in the water, no matter how much time I give them to get used to it. Then again, they seem to have no problem fishing for peas, so there may be hope yet.

Lixit Success!

If you recall, I posted a while ago about why I don't use a water bottle for my rats. Long story short: I had a water bottle for Potato and Goma when I first got them and it didn't actually work, so they wound up being without water for two days and I felt awful and vowed never to risk it again. Thus, they've had a water dish ever since.

Anyway, after reading the Lixit review I linked in my previous water bottle post, I decided that I should give the brand a try if I ever came across one of their products locally. And, last week, I wound up finding a Lixit brand water bottle at Animal House, a locally-owned pet store. It's not quite as fancy as the one in the review, but it's working just fine so far. As you can see from the video, Potato and Goma are both pretty big fans, too.

My only issue now is that I bought them a silent wheel so their running in the middle of the night wouldn't wake everyone up, and now their water bottle is louder than their wheel ever was. Oh well, I guess some sacrifices are worth making.

How 'Bout A Drink?

Image by Tanya Bond

This is rat-related in name only, but I thought it might be a bit fun.

I was mixing a drink this evening and wondered if there were any inspired by our little furry friends. A quick visit to a search engine later, I have some new drinks to try. Admittedly, they don't have the nicest of names, but, as I'm sure you already know, rats don't necessarily have the best reputations with the general populace. Oh well, they still sound pretty interesting.

First off is the Rat Shooter from Drink Nation. It consists of two alcohols I've never tried before, so it might take some time before I give it a go. Apparently Rumple Minze is a peppermint liqueur, so maybe I can substitute some Peppermint Schnapps instead.

Next is a shot called the Rats Brain, from Bar None Drinks. This one actually sounds pretty tastey - it's a combination of Baileys, Kahlua, and vodka. I don't want to know what feature gave it its name.

Then there's the Dead Rat shooter from Mario's Bar (the list is alphabetical). I don't want to know where it got it's name. I also clearly need to brush up on my alcohol knowledge since I can't even pronounce the first ingredient, let alone tell you what it is.

Continuing on with the negative connotation names, let's finish up with the Sewer Rat from idrink. While I recognize everything that goes into it, I'm not sure I like the idea of Kahlua and orange juice. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that this one's name definitely has some ties to its flavour.

If you're brave enough to try them all, it could be fun to make a night of it. Have a few friends over for a rat-themed cocktail party and see who's brave enough to try them all first. Or find out which one(s) you enjoy and just stick with those. Of course, don't let your ratties try any of these - I'm sure they'd be much happier with some fresh lettuce and a bowl of peas (or a bit of yoghurt or peanut butter if you really want to spoil them).

Thirsty?

Lixit Water Bottle

I have not had the best luck with water bottles for my rats, not at all. When I first brought Potato and Goma home, back when I had only the tiniest idea of what I was getting into, I had a glass water bottle for them. It was almost identical to the water bottles we had for our hamsters and guinea pig when I was growing up, save for a different size, so I was under the impression that it was one of the few things that I could understand. Too bad it didn’t work. I set up the cage, got everything in place and let the boys in, comfortable with the knowledge that they had cozy bedding and a fresh supply of food and water. The next morning, the water level hadn’t moved at all. So, okay, I filled it wrong or put it together funny, nothing some quick adjustments wouldn’t fix. Nope. Nothing worked. I could release the water by pressing on the stopper ball with my finger, but it didn’t budge for the rats, despite their best efforts. I tried exchanging it for another one, which also failed, before I decided it’d just be safer to use a dish.

Now, open dishes, even ones that attach to the side of a cage, aren’t recommended for rats for a variety of reasons. In short, they’ll probably climb all over it; poop will wind up in it more than once, as will fur and bodily fluids; it will spill, guaranteed; they might decide to drop their food in it, so that it will slowly fill with an unpleasant rat kibble-based paste. It is not all that fun, but at least I know they can definitely reach their water.

However, I recently read a great review of the Lixit Bird Deluxe Glass Water Bottle on the Rat Whisperer blog and I am intrigued. It sounds like a really excellent, trust-worthy product and she does tend to know her stuff. While I’m not going to run out and buy one right this second, I am seriously considering trying it out since it would be a much more mess-free alternative to my current set-up. I’m sure the boys would be happy to see a throw-back to their child-hoods, too.