Mouse or rat? Pic included

[mouseorrat]

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

Someone suggested ferret, they can lose the fur on their tail, known as rats tail.

Was it a long thin body?

Clanger?

Water vole for my money

Not a vole - tail too long. It is definitely a rat.

And bambini - your pest controller is wrong - what you caught was a mouse, not a baby rat.

He is either mistaken or he's trying to frighten you into paying a fortune for rat poison and traps.

It's not a rat.
It's not a squirrel.
It's not a mole.
It's not a shrew.
It's not a mouse.
It's not a ferret.
It's not a chinchilla.
It's not a water vole.
It's not a horse.
It's ......... Rebecca Vardy's account.

Definitely a Degu

Oh I can put my hand up as the owner of many rats over the years and no it isn't a rat. The ears are wrong. Rats have little rounded baldy ears. Not pointy furry odd ones.

You need to crack the ears thing.

The tail is also a bit too furry for a rat, but I had one who did have a very funny tail which had loads of that slightly downy hair some of them have on the tail. But the ears are totally wrong.

Can't believe this hasn't been identified yet, although I'm laughing at some of the suggestions

I only said water vole earlier because I was taking the piss!

They are reasonably rare, you don't find them in houses and the ears are totally wrong!

I think lots of us work with rats crash

Mine are about 6 ft tall, balding and extraordinarily patronising to women. That's not a rat in that pic.

Found it. This is an exact match to the picture.

Believe us. wood mouse/yellow necked mouse (V similar and used to be thought of as the same species)
Im the person who correctly identified the deer tick in a previous horrifying thread.
.
I know my British wildlife
AND we have had pet degus (its not one)
And pet rats (its not one)
and we live on a farm
AND I DO THIS FOR A LIVING IDENTIFYING THEM WITH KIDS

Maybe this?

Blimey Vardy!

Those pictures . . . they could be twins . . .

My cat brings mice in and they are tiny . Definitely not a mole .. I'd say a young rat

NettleTea explodes

Here is a useful rat ear pic. One of my oldies, as you can see, they used to hold my hand when sleepy on my lap. Aww. Anyway, you can see that they are very different ears to the lesser spotted British elk mouse in the pic.

@ExhaustedGrinch well that's made my night 😂😂😂

Looks like a young squirrel with either mange or other disease and has lost his hair on his tail.

Oh for gawd's sake.if I ever find anything I can't identify, I'm just just going to pm NettleTea directly. There's clearly no point asking the hivemind of MN!

baby squirrel with tails yet to fill out

It's December! Sometimes you have to use context, such as season, habitat, region, food sources where you found it, and so on.

Any squirrel who has babies that small at this time of year must have used IVF to get them!

This is making me have flashbacks to the very dead very adult squirrel I had to deal with in my back garden on Wednesday. I do hope the vicar next door didn't hear my language.

For clarification , when you say the size of a hamster do you mean a Syrian or Russian?

I agree with others, no need for a trap outside. Very cruel