Mouse or rat? Pic included

[mouseorrat]

Mouse or rat? Found it in the garden, about the size of a hamster

It’s a rat

show me a ginger and white wild rat. Its not a bloody rat. We have a conservation farm and do small mammel ID.
Its a mouse

NettleTea
looks like a wood mouse to me. rats dont tend to have the white belly - thats the wood mouse colouring.

How big is a wood mouse? I was gifted a creature with a white belly which I thought was a baby rat. Unfortunately it was re-caught and probably eaten and I couldn't help it a second time.

@JamieVardysHavingAParty - I now want some baby rats, they're so sweet.

@CuriousaboutSamphire He's gorgeous!

My beloved cat Clyde brings me:

Moths
voles
shrews
squirrel once (aaaargh!)
bats
and recently
rats
mice
mice
mice
mice
birds
field mice

That IS NOT A RAT!

OP did you see its teeth at all?

This is a mother African Pouched Rat, according to the comments.

Look at her!

I shall now recite 'To A Mouse'...as a comfort to myself at the thought of the poor wee dead mousie/rat/vole/shrew/degu/ Shetland Pony.

We found a little creature running round our local streets which I caught and posted a pic of. Everyone was sure it was an escaped pet and so was I as it was really tame (was sitting on my arm happy to be stroked) The SSPCA came and took it and it later turned out it was a baby rat. Still think it was an escaped pet.

That picture is a mouse, you can tell from the snout, the feet, the ears and the brown shade of fur. I completely disagree. You can tell it's a raccoon by it's eyebrows.

Platypus....
Or a mouse.

Baby rats most definitely DO have white bellies. I have a pic but don't post as it's a bit gruesome.

In fact having just compared my dead baby rat photo to ops photo it's exactly the same.
Definitely baby rat.

That African rat is gorgeous!!

How do you know your gruesome photo is a rat?

What I notice about the OP's photo is that the tail doesn't taper. It's a mouse tail.

There's 13 pages of this - are we done playing 'name that rodent'?

You could have made it easier for us OP by laying it flat out or propping up against a fag packet for scale...

Can I just add that the presence of a tail and the fact I've kept guinea-pigs for many years , I am taking guinea-pigs Off The Table before anyone suggests them.

Though we did have a piggie (home grown, her mum was pg when we got her) that had a "tail" , an extra centimetre of bone at the end of her spine . Not skin covered though , just under fur .

As you were .

Trust me, when you get a rat you KNOW it’s a rat. I’ve had a few, thanks Mr Cat my lovely friend. This isn’t a rat.

It’s dead anyway, what’s the issue.

I was going to suggest a capybara next.

It's a wood rat, cant be bothered to check if it's been said already

When I had a mouse infestation my pest controller proudly told me 'well at least none of them have their head eaten cos that's when you'd know you have rats.'

He also said not to catch them humanely and set them free because they would just tell all their mouse friends 'party at number 33'!

This was very funny, and it does make we wonder what news feed the pest man was reading tho...

@DontCallMeShitley a wood mouse average is 9.5 - 12cms long, not including the tail. Obv thats an average. You might get a chonky one.

I'm not convinced it's a rat - I work with rats and it doesn't look much like any I encounter. His ears look too furry and his face looks a different shape. Where abouts do you live - could it be a vole?

Wood mouse. Wood mice are quite big - 10cm for a woodlouse body sounds about right (with about the same again for the tail.

That's not a rat's tail.
Those aren't rat's ears.
Nor are they rat's eyes. (Even allowing for sunkenness)

Believe me - I know rats. I've just killed one that was living in our compost heap. Even young rats (which have a sort of ratly charm) are less attractive than this.

Wood mice are very beautiful creatures and occasionally come indoors during the winter. Does it have a golden sort of flash around its neck/chest? If so, definitely a wood mouse. We occasionally get them indoors in bad weather. I usually catch them in a humane trap and release them in the local park.