Do rats come out in the light or tend to avoid light?

There are many animals out there that are considered nocturnal. What this means is that they do most of their hunting or gathering during the nighttime, and sleep during the day. In some cases, like in the bat or the possum, their sense of vision is so poor that going out in the daytime is a dangerous option to select. They put themselves at risk because they simply cannot see anything at all, and so it is much wiser for them to rely on their other senses which give them an advantage during the dark.



While this is true of some nocturnal animals, not all are blinded during the daylight. Instead, they choose to hunt and gather at night because it is not only safer for them, but because their life pattern has been built in this way. Some creatures know how to slink and slither along so that they are not detected is easily, and the darkness gives them an advantage in being able to do so. A great example of this is the rat.

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A rat can actually see quite well during the daytime. For those who have these rodents as a pet, they can take the rat out of the cage and put it in one of those little plastic balls that allows it to run around the house, and it will gladly do so. It has no issue with being awake during the day.

However, the rat prefers to do its work at night. There is an instinctual design in a rat that makes it so that being out at nighttime gives it an advantage, or at least protects it from the dangers that could occur should it be detected by other animals.

Not every animal sees well at night, not like a cat for example, so our rat has some advantages in the fact that its sense of smell helps it to find food and avoid potential predators. The lack of vision that the darkness creates is a trade-off to this rodent, because it understands that neither it or the predator hunting it may be able to see very well. This levels the playing field, but also gives the rat an advantage because of its incredible sense of smell.

During the daylight, the rat is quite visible to any creature that should get an eye on it, including human beings. A rat is doing all that it can to avoid the possibility of being caught and killed, so doing its work at night is when you are most likely to see it out and about.

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Once again, for those who have had a rat as a pet, they are fully aware that as darkness descends on their home that the rat will come to life and begin its process of eating and trying to escape from its cage. These are daytime sleepers that prefer the advantages afforded it at nighttime, and that is when you will most likely see them out. For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How much does rat removal cost? - get the lowdown on prices.
How to get rid of rats - my main rat removal info guide.
Example rat trapping photographs - get do-it-yourself ideas.
Rat job blog - learn from great examples of rat jobs I've done.