I need help with a rat I caught...

I know how you feel: I once had 3 mice living in my kitchen and had to catch them (with humane traps) and decide what to do with them. The trick is to take them far enough away before release. Rats aren't homing pigeons: they will live anywhere they can find food, shelter and perhaps a bit of warmth. They don't care if it's your kitchen or a sewer outlet - they're so darned smart and good at surviving that it makes no difference to them. So, if you don't want to kill the poor little furry, take it out into the country and release it there (country is preferable so that it doesn't move into some other person's kitchen). Or you could drop it in the dustbins behind a restaurant you hate.

I did that, released it MILES from my house, across several really busy streets and in a wild area where, I expect, it didn't live too long because it was used to a house not a wooded area. I hope whatever ate it lived to be a nice old age...

Hi Dear Jimeny! In fact I have made some similar posting few weeks back where in I have expressed my views about the trapped rat in the cage, which are quite similar to you! I too can't think of killing the rat got trapped in the cage as they you say they also o have the right to live on this earth. But then the fact is, rats can make our lives miserable by their actions. I retrieved my lost pen drive, watch, some small things all in my sofa where these rats have taken them to decorate their nests! They have spoiled lot of hings at my place including my sofa set, the wiring of my computer and the printer as a whole as on of the rat wanted to build a nest in it! So what I do is I carry the trapped rat in my car few kilometers away from my house which is already is a secluded place and leave it in wild so that it can survive all by himself/herself with the lot of natural vegetation and other edibles like wild fruits and nuts! So far I think no rat has returned back from there! But then I am staying on the farm, I tend to get more new rats after few days I get rid of the old ones! Now frankly speaking the trapping of rats and leaving them in wild has become a routine in our lives! Thanks for the discussion!

it's nice that you don't want to kill the rat. as other people have said, they are resilient creatures, and can survive in most places. while it may struggle in a new place, it has a good chance of making a new life for itself if it's far enough away not to try and come back.