AFRMA

American Fancy Rat & Mouse Association

This article is from the WSSF 2017 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

Beginners’ Corner


Rat/Hamster Hybrid?

By Karen Robbins


Rats

Eva Christina Cerda, Facebook
Q I’m not sure if these are mice or rat/hamster hybrids; they are in our home wild. My female Calico hamster got out. They have all the features of a rat except the head which is hamster like. I was wondering if this was a new breed of rat, it’s so consistent, and I wouldn’t want to kill them all off if that were so!

Rats

 
A Wild Rattus rattus (roof rat) are at least 4–6 inches long in the body and the tail is really long and the ears really big. Wild mice are only 2–3 inches in body length. Hamsters, mice, and rats are different species and won’t interbreed.

That is definitely a rat. This has the really long tail and big ears like Rattus rattus but they normally have a leaner body and this has more bulk to it plus the white belly so possibly a wood rat? You might want to contact your local agriculture extension, wildlife dept., or zoo to find out which species you have there in your state. *

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April 18, 2019