rats

bongorob

bongorob

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I have often been told by various people that they have seen brown rats as large as domestic cats.

Despite endless searching I have come across no records of a rat ever attaining this size, and I tend to doubt the accuracy of the information given to me. Yet the people who tell me claim it is true.

Has anyone ever seen a larger than normal rat?

Most people I know who have told me they have rats in their garden have voles anyway.
 
I've seen a massive brown rat in a jar of formalin or alcohol at the Canterbury Museum, NZ (in storage, not on display), which was caught at the city dump. Rumours are they get to the size of cats there. I think it must be a world-wide story. Anyway, the one I saw was possibly half cat-size, bigger than any rat I'd ever seen before or since, and it filled the entire jar. (But it was a long time ago so my memory may well have enlarged it :) )
 
I've never seen huge brown rats, but the cloud rats that have been popping up at zoos on my road trip are absolutely enormous!
 
I actually did see one in while I was waiting for the subway in New York City. It was barely smaller than a cat, but it was big. At first I thougt it was an opossum, but after looking twice I finally saw that indeed it was a rat.
 
Rats do get pretty big- I've found some massive ones, but never cat-sized. It's just a common myth, I think.

I remember in the Hull Fair Freak Show, they had a rat that they claimed to be the largest rat ever found. It was a badly-stuffed Coypu.
 
mstickmanp said:
I actually did see one in while I was waiting for the subway in New York City. It was barely smaller than a cat, but it was big. At first I thougt it was an opossum, but after looking twice I finally saw that indeed it was a rat.
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The opposite happened in Staffordshire several years ago. Someone's dog carried home an injured animal which was originally thought to be a rat, but was identified as a Virginian Opossum.

None of the people who first saw it had any idea what an oppossum looked like.

The body is in The Potteries Museum now.

No one knows how it came to be found in the Staffordshire moorlands.
 
"Cat-sized" Brown/Black Rats are just an urban myth, based on exaggeration and the inability of many people to judge correct animal sizes (also see giant snakes, fish etc.).

The largest (male) Brown rats observed so far are in the 1-1.5 kg range. In comparison: the normal, not obese housecat weighs about 3-4 kg, depending on age/gender/breed etc.

So instead of "cat", "young kitten" might be a more appropriate comparison in the case of larger Brown rats...;)
 
I don't believe any Brown Rat can grow larger than the normal mean size/weight range for the species as listed above by Sun. After all, if you feed any other animal species well, it will maybe put on weight but it can't grow any larger than the norm. for its species (unless its been genetically modified perhaps).
I've seen plenty of 'big' rats but they are never bigger than normal sized... so I too regard the 'rats as big as cats' theory/statement as a falsehood.
 
I found this interesting snippet on page 348 of "A Guide To The Mammals Of Southeast Asia" by Charles M. Francis (2008):
Even amongst sexually-mature rats, measurements must be considered somewhat cautiously because most murids continue to grow as adults.
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I guess that theoretically that means really extra-large brown rats could be around...
 
My Grandpa's house in Malaysia, whenever we come back he asks us to catch the rats, and then drown them, though I leave that to my brothers, I saw one in a trap once it was huge!, like my memory is too fuzzy to think of an exact estimate though it could barely fit in the metal cage, what we called a trap, in fact it had its back legs outside of it I remember and was pushed up against the metal,

Godzilla has a new enemy, looks like we got a new king of all monsters,

no offence to rats,
 
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