Facts about Rats

• The first albino rats to be bred in captivity were born to a single albino rat captured in a graveyard in England by Queen Victoria's royal rat catcher Jack Black.
• Sprague Dewley rats, a strain of laboratory rat, can birth more then twenty pups per litter.
• According to the Guinness Book of World Records the longest lived domestic rat died at seven years and four months of age (which far exceeds the 2-3 year expected lifespan.)
• The first astronaut rat launched from France into outer space in 1961.
• The first laboratory rats were bred as far back as 1828 in Europe.
• The rat is the first animal on the Chinese Zodiac.
• The oils in cedar and pine are toxic to rats, and should not be used in their bedding materials.
• A group of rats is called a mischief.
• Soda does not make rats explode. ( Who came up with that anyway?? )
• Rats have bellybuttons.
• Rats don't have gallbladders or tonsils.
• Rats can't vomit. A rat can, however, gag on something if it eats too quickly. The plus side of this is that rats can usually eat and drink before surgery.