Do Nebraska Rats Hibernate or Not?

It may be hard to imagine how the Nebraska rats can manage to survive the unforgiving cold of the winter season. One might think that they will go through hibernation to save body fats. Unfortunately, compared to chipmunks that go through hibernation, the rats will be active during the entire winter. In addition, they can't store fats just like the squirrels. Metabolic rate of the rats is also considerably fast. Rats will not also alter their behavior to conserve the available resources during the cold months.



What Rats Do During Winter

You are probably wondering the activities that Nebraska rats do during the winter. Usually, their activities are mostly focused in keeping them alive. Here are some of the things that they will do to survive the winter season.

Stockpiling

The Omaha rats might not have the ability to fatten up. However, they can still prepare for the lack of resources during the winter. For instance, rats will start to store their food on the autumn. The rats are aggressive when hunting their foods. They can even go to places with high presence of human activities just to retrieve foods. Apart from that, the rats can eat almost anything. They can survive from the food scraps on our garbage. They will stock their food in easily accessible places in order to retrieve them for later use.

Creating Burrows

By storing their foods, the problem for the Omaha rat's resources has been solved. However, the rats will still need to stay warm and comfortable. Rats are known to be adept diggers. They will take advantage of any structures that they can use as den. They will then dig their burrows underneath this structure. By digging close to the structure, the job of the mice in creating burrows has significantly reduced and they can guarantee the strength of their burrows. Compared to the prairie dogs, the rats do not create an elaborate tunnel system. Their burrow will usually be shallow with a single entrance or exit point. In some instances, the rats will prefer to construct their nest in your properties such as in the attic and basement.

Building Nest

The nest of the Nebraska rats will appear like a bird nest. However, it will be a lot messier. They do not have the ability to create an intricate nest that are made from weaving twigs. They simply drag a range of materials back into their nest. All items that will make their nest comfortable and warm will be used as nesting materials. They look for the dark and warm areas of your house that are not always visited by humans when building their nest. In order to thwart this behavior of rats, you should eliminate their access from the materials that they can use.

While Omaha rats will not hibernate during the winter, their activities will significantly reduce. In fact, even their reproduction will cease if they cannot find an ideal place to raise their young ones. Unfortunately, once they find an access to the warm areas of your house, they may reproduce continuously and you house will suffer from a severe damage.



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