Can Anyone Identify This? Rat Vs Mouse

This blog contains two images of dead rodents so isn't for the easily offended.
- hold on, since when was one of my blogs suitable for anyone that was easily offended?

OK so...

Here's a quiz for anyone who thinks they can help us work out if the dead animal we have is a rat or a mouse...

Rat or Mouse Quiz

Now the real quiz because I scored 12 out of 12 on the quiz and used to be around a pet rat all the time but still I can't identify this below. If you also scored 12 out of 12 on the above quiz, your confusion equally qualifies with identifying the image below.

Now this one has me very confused. We know that there is a family of rats around our basement and we had a house mouse that used to watch TV with us (but died a few weeks ago). This was in our basement and smells like a dead rat which would lead us to think that it's a very small rat (about 4-5 inches) but the droppings around it are mouse droppings and the tail is longer than the body. Also when we have experienced wild rats they have been bigger and darker. We'd even considered if it was a Degu but they are only wild in South America.

I think I saw this thing in our kitchen the other evening and it had some 'drift on' when I realised I found it - it may have been shocked to death.

Unidentified Rodent Object

So... is anyone sure what this is or is everyone's guess as good as mine?

The tail was about an inch longer than the body of the animal although the photo angle doesn't support this. My guess is that it is the smallest rat I've ever seen although it seems too fat to be a baby rat and the tail is longer than the body (which almost never occurs in rats).

The result is the same, we are extra vigilant with food preparation and hygiene. I don't want people to think we are either cruel to animals or that we live in awful conditions because neither are true. 

We live in an old farm house so expect this sort of thing. Below is a photo of our house mouse that used to be really friendly with us. He came to me in his last few minutes, I tried to feed him and give him water but he didn't make it.

The differences are outstanding but by no means able to lead us to a definitive conclusion.

Identified Rodent Object

I'm sorry if the photos of dead animals and you may find it either shocking or distasteful. I'm not one of these photographers that goes out to collect images of roadkills of dead animals, although you will find there are a surprising number of these out there, including some that are famous or making a living from it.

I take photos of much nicer stuff too.

If you aren't easily shocked or offended and don't mind a bit of borderline controversy, add me to your reading list (subscribe) or follow me on Twitter.

I'm really just intrigued to place this one - answers or guesses below.