Roof Rat

Other identifications are : black rat, fruit rat, ship rat and alexandrian rat. Once there is plenty food and shelter, roof rats have no misgivings about living in close proximity with humans, especially in attics, crawl spaces, ceilings or wall areas. Roof rat inhabiting upper areas of buildings or homes often gnaw wires (thinking they are twigs) and can lead to fires, outages and inevitably production down time.
Scientific Name - Rattus Rattus
Color - Black to brownish-gray; hard to identify by color alone
Weight - 6-12 ounces; smaller than norway rat
Length - 6-8 inches
Tail Length - 7-10; longer than the body
Body - Thin, slender body, pointed nose
Ears - Relatively small; close to body
Eyes - Large & prominent eyes; color blind
Lifespan - 5 to 8 months
Droppings : ½ inch long with pointed ends; dark color; found scattered

The daily diet of the roof rat intakes 1 ounce of water daily and consumes 0.5-1 ounce of food per day. Those foods consist of vegetabless, meats, seeds, eggs, fruits and berries. Roof Rats live nearby coastal cities as a rule they do not live more than 100 miles inland. They nest in attics, false ceilings, dead fronds of palm trees and upper portions of buildings. They dont rome more than 300 feet from their home. Norway rats are nocturnal and the bulk of their feeding occurs 30 minutes after sunset and before sunrise. During their reproduction they produce 4-8 pups per litter and have 3-4 litters per year. After spawning they achieve sexual maturity after 2-3 months, and the gestation period (fetus development) is 22 days. Lastly their breeding period whilst indoors is all-year round, and outdoors is Spring & Fall.