# Could a human being eat a live rat and not get sick? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864 "2011-01-25T01:36:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/21 "2011-01-25T22:53:17Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > As we grab the live mouse by the tail, hold it above our head and lower it toward our mouth so we can bite into it… is there any chance it might be pregnant? No, no. As we grab the live mouse by the tail, hold it above our head and lower it toward our mouth so we can bite into it… is there any chance this rodent once belonged to Richard Gere? ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/22 "2011-01-26T02:36:32Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > My faith in the accuracy of your name is restored. > > I have eaten muskrat. Dead, skinned, cut up and stewed. I hope you floss regularly.:eek: ::d&r:: ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/23 "2011-01-26T02:45:26Z")
> [@medstar](#): > > I hope you floss regularly.:eek: > > ::d&r:: Not too necessary, Crotalus’ fangs are the only teeth to have significant contact with the muskrat, and after it’s envenomed he just swallows it whole. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/24 "2011-01-26T03:07:05Z")
Are we allowed to cook it? If so, and you cook it well, you’ll be fine. If not, you’ll still be fine, but of course, with a lower probabiltiy. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/25 "2011-01-26T03:13:02Z")
In his autobiography _Will_, G. Gordon Liddy ate a rat, to overcome his fear of them. He cooked it first. IIRC, he suffered no ill affects. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/26 "2011-01-27T18:40:06Z")
Rats carry Leptisporosus, which is something you really, really don’t want to get. Not sure that i spelled it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/27 "2011-02-09T04:26:32Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Humans also, generally speaking, have access to fire and can bash a rat against the ground to kill it. There are no instances where eating raw, living animals would be necessary for survival. Raw animals, maybe. But we would be able to kill them first, if we were able to catch them. Just came across [this](http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/g/giles/ernest/g47a/complete.html)while looking for some info for another thread. > [@](#): > > I was in such a miserable state of mind and body, that I refrained from more vexatious speculations as to what had delayed him: I stayed here, drinking and drinking, until about ten a.m., when I crawled away over the stones down from the water. I was very footsore, and could only go at a snail’s pace. Just as I got clear of the bank of the creek, I heard a faint squeak, and looking about I saw, and immediately caught, a small dying wallaby, whose marsupial mother had evidently thrown it from her pouch. It only weighed about two ounces, and was scarcely furnished yet with fur. The instant I saw it, like an eagle I pounced upon it and ate it, living, raw, dying — fur, skin, bones, skull, and all. The delicious taste of that creature I shall never forget. I only wished I had its mother and father to serve in the same way. So, yeah, there are instances where eating raw, living animals has been necessary for survival. No ill effects reported. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/28 "2011-02-09T12:29:18Z")
People eat mice regularly and voluntarily. Search for “three squeaks”. For example: [http://www.culinaryschools.org/blog/three-squeaks/](http://www.culinaryschools.org/blog/three-squeaks/) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/29 "2011-02-10T06:07:47Z")
Live rat, or, as a freebie, a dead-by-stomped-on rat. The buggers have teeth. How does the human digestive system handle those as the animal is lowered down the tilted head? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/30 "2011-02-10T06:44:33Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > The buggers have teeth. How does the human digestive system handle those as the animal is lowered down the tilted head? Pretty easily. Teeth dissolve rapidly in acid, the human stomach is pretty damn acidic. Even if the teeth weren’t digested, there would be little danger from them. They would simply pass through. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/31 "2011-02-10T15:05:08Z")
I’d be concerned, even if I was starving, that a live rat would scratch the hell out of my throat as it went down. I’d definitely want to swing it by the tail onto a rock and bash its brains out before I ate it. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864/32 "2011-02-10T18:16:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Live rat, or, as a freebie, a dead-by-stomped-on rat. > The buggers have teeth. How does the human digestive system handle those as the animal is lowered down the tilted head? Having swallowed one of my baby teeth when it was loose (it felt _exactly_ like a marshmallow-coated Rice Krispie piece, which is what I was eating) I can assure you the human digestive system would handle it the same way it handles anything else: it passes through. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-human-being-eat-a-live-rat-and-not-get-sick/568864.md?page=1)