Do rats eat cheese? Do they like it?

Rats are notorious for their strong, powerful and tireless jaws that can go chewing on anything they find edible for the whole day. They are known to task themselves with continuous eating – and these ravenously hungry creatures are known to be stressed more by hunger than anything else. Rats have the most diverse diet and a digestive system that allows them to enjoy almost anything their teeth can break as food. But these creatures are not a stupid bunch, given options, or when they land in your room and find that they have a number of food items that they can choose from, they definitely have preferences. One more stunning aspect with rats is that when they are presented with numerous options for food, they will not limit themselves to a single food item, but will then choose to sample each of them out to see how they go with their digestions. One of the most loved food items from rats include meats and dairy, but how about cheese?



You can pay witness that there are hundreds of cartoons depicting rats with large boxes of cheese that they seem to be enjoying. So then, are these cartoons based on fact or fiction? Partly, rats love cheese and partly cheese may be dangerous to these creatures. It all depending on the specific type of rat you are dealing with as well as the particular type of cheese in question. So the answer is an open one here. Let us get into its specifics.

A study conducted by the Animal Behavior society indicated that one of the most loved food for city dwelling brown rats were macaroni, scrambled eggs, cooked corn and on the top of the list cheese. This study, combined with a good number of regular observations indicates that cheese is a safe food for rats, and they love it, although there are variations that one has to pay key attention to. Some of the rats have shown lactose intolerance, and thus feeding animals already with this symptom would lead them to suffer with their digestive problems. But cheese, due to its high fat content, is quite a fattening diet for rats, especially if they are not having enough of exercise throughout the day.

On the contrary, blue cheese is indicated to be a tougher choice when it comes to rats, especially young ones. Blue cheese contains mold as one of its ingredients, which is said to bring up several complications in rats, and for young rats these complications could have tragic consequences. This means you should try as much as possible to keep blue cheese away, unless you need to use it to exterminate the rats. All said, it best when cheese is used as an occasionally treat rather than a staple for rat food. Read more: Rat Control, Get Rats Out of the Attic, Rat Trapping, Rats in the Ceiling, Rat Feces.