Correct terminology for male/female animals?

Question

How do I speak about my pet rats in Spanish? Firstly, do I understand correctly that "rata" means "rat" and "ratón" means "mouse"? I also realize that "rato" means "a short while," so does that mean that even male rats are spoken of in the feminine gender in Spanish?For example, would I say "tengo una rata hembra y tres ratas machas"? And if I started to speak about "mi rata Miguél" do I then switch to the masculine or continue speaking of him in the feminine? I would never say "rata macho" would I?

Answer 1

Masculino y femenino

Masculimo:

1. Las palabras de género masculino que terminen con consonante, se agreg

Answer 2

You can use the word "la rata" or " el raton" to talk about a rat. If you would like to use another word to clarify about the gender of the rat or mouse, you can also use "ratoncito" or "ratoncita."

In regards to "rato" you are correct that that means awhile, and you would not change "rata" to "rato" to talk about gender. It will always be "la rata" and have the feminine endings for adjectives. However if you would like to change the adjective to be masculine, you can use "el raton" interchangeably.

*Note: "raton" has an accent on the "o" but for some reason I can't copy and paste it in here.