Yes. Just like in people, the majority of rats are right-handed, or "right-pawed."
Paw preference in rats was first recognized in 1930, when Tsai gave rats a small glass bottle of wheat germ. The opening of the glass bottle was so small that a rat could insert only one paw at a time. Tsai watched each of 105 rats grab food out of the container 250 times. A little over half of the rats (52%) used their right paws to grasp food out of the container 75-100% of the time, making them right-handed. About a third (31%) preferred to use their left paws, and a small number (17%) showed no paw-preference, making them ambidextrous (Tsai and Maurer, 1930).
More recent studies have found an even higher percentage of right-handed rats (Table 1). In general, all these studies agree that most rats are right-handed, a smaller number are left-handed, and a few are ambidextrous.
| Right-handed | Left-handed | Ambidextrous | Total #rats | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
70.2% |
19.3% |
11.9% |
114 |
Pençe 2002 |
|
72.7% |
19.7% |
7.6% |
144 |
Güven et al. 2003 |
|
82.4% |
10.3% |
7.4% |
68 |
Elalmis et al. 2003 |