[ithacaartist]

I've never actually eaten rat in order to make the pronouncement of this post's title, I confess. But I will stand by it--partly in recognition of what's basically a world-wide consensus among those who *have* partaken, and extrapolation from my experience eating rabbit and squirrel. I also know that if you microwave an entire rat, to warm it up for your boa constrictor, they can smell quite funky/unappetizing. But I can imagine that if one were butchered properly, it'd probably be just fine.

p.s. Since I'm on a roll here... Herpetologists will tell you that captive snakes should be offered food that's commensurate with their size. Many constrictors have heat-sensing pits on their faces which assist in locating food, so the latter is often warmed to mimic live prey.
At the point we donated Esmeralda to Dan the Snake Man--a fella who would drive a van full of reptiles around to schools for educational outreach--she was around 65 pounds, a tad under 12 feet, and consuming a 3-pound rabbit per week. When my son acquired her as a pup (snake, not son), she was 18 inches long, and about as big around as a ring finger. Snakes this size are fed "pinks," aka hairless baby mice. The point of this additional ramble is to advise that when warming pinks for your snake in the microwave, do it gently, lest they pop!