Rat Tails

If there is anything you don't want to look up on Urban Dictionary, it is the term rat tail. Rat tails are incredibly useful but yet have all sorts of negative connotations. (Note, we're not talking about this kind of rat tail.) Furthermore, if you talk to people about rats, often one of the first things you usually hear is, "I can't stand their tails." My first rat was a rescued feeder rat named Alex and while my parents were okay with him in the house, I had to wrap him in a towel  before my mom would hold him, so she didn't have to see his tail. For whatever reason, a lot of people just are not okay with rat tails.

I think the tips of Sushi and Saké's tails look like worms in this picture.

Rat tails though, are incredibly useful. If you watch rats for any period of time, you will notice how much the ways in which they use their tails change based on what they are doing. Tails help with balance and you will often see a rat wrap their tail around something when climbing. Sometimes it might be a railing or a post, and sometimes, if they are climbing on a person, it might be a face!

I really don't have a double chin - Sushi was climbing up the side of my head and had wrapped her tail around the bottom of my face!

I've done a bit of reading recently about the domestication of certain species and one of the common denominators is the tail. Tails of domesticated animals have less bones and tend to curve more. For instance, if you watch a house cat walk around, and that house cat is happy, it probably has its tail straight in the air, with a crook at the very top. I have yet to find out if this same sort of modification happened in rats. I haven't noticed anything specific that Saké and Sushi do with their tails when they are simply content (other than the tail being relaxed) but their tails change drastically depending on what they are doing (if they are running on their wheel, their tails are carried upward, if they are relaxed and playing outside of their cage, they carry their tails straight back).

Sushi leans in to look at something completely new - her tail is rigid and upright.

I assume that rat tails can be used in the same way as those of dogs, cats, and horses to reveal aspects of how a rat is feeling but I don't know enough about it at this point. I should start keeping a rat field journal.