# Question RE: Wild rats



## jason7579 (Jun 14, 2008)

A friend of mine helps local farms with rat problems by regular visits with his rifle. He has noticed that of all of the rats that he has killed (multiple hundreds if not thousands) until very recently he doesn't recall killing any male rats.
Is it normal for the female rats to outnumber the male rats by so much? Are the females more active and the males stay hidden away? Theres no particular reason we need to know, we were just trying to work out why there seems to be such a difference in numbers.

Thanks


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## mitsi (Feb 1, 2012)

Not sure about wild rats, but I know my breeders always seem to have more females in the litter than males, possibly 2 or 3 males compared to 7 or 8 females. Cant see it being that different in wild ones.


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

female rats need more calories than males because they are nursing...

they forage much more than males...


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## jason7579 (Jun 14, 2008)

So maybe a mix of the two, more females in each litter added to the female need to forage more frequently for food equals less males in the firing line. 

Thanks for the responses, it was bugging us a bit, we were thinking that possibly the females were our looking for food for their young or eating more to sustain themselves whilst carrying offspring.

Can I use these for snake food or because of the chance of them having ingested poison is it best to stick to shop purchased rats.


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

Males are also more territorial, once they reach maturity most of them are driven to the outskirts of the colony, so presumably you are shooting in the main warren. you would probably find if you shot further away you would get the opposite, almost all young males.

Interesting to hear about the litters, as when we bred them we found the opposite, which was a pain as ours were bred for pets and males are more difficult to home than females!


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