July 12: Bundles of leaves of carrion-flower (Smilax herbacea); 15 green pods of honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) with seeds eaten out; several green fruits of osage orange (Maclura pomifera), and several seeds of coffee-tree (Gymnocladus dioica).
July 24: Bundles of green leaves of osage orange and carrion-flower; many pods of honey locust.
August 30: Three large clusters of the fruits of pokeberry (Phytolacca americana).
October 20: Many small clusters of grapes (Vitis vulpina) judged to weigh perhaps one pound in all; several old pods of coffee-tree and a few berries of dogwood (Cornus Drummondi) and of pokeberry; a pile of small acorns of chinquapin oak (Quercus prinoides); dry seed heads of grass (Bromus inermis and B. japonicus).
December 22: Many twigs of bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) with fruits still attached; several seed heads of sunflower (Helianthus annuus); a few acorns of chinquapin oak; fragments of the fruit of osage orange; cured bundles of trefoil (Desmodium glutinosum), carrion-flower, and tickle grass (Panicum capillare).
Although the eastern woodrat is relatively unspecialized in its feeding habits, a few species of favored food plants probably make up the greater part of its diet. In northeastern Kansas, at present, osage orange probably is by far the most important single species. Despite the fact that its aromatic leaves and fruits are somewhat repellent to insects and some other animals, they are well liked by woodrats, and provide a year-round food supply to those individuals having houses in or near the trees. Honey locust similarly provides thorny shelter for house sites, while the foliage, the seeds, and the bark of twigs and trunks are eaten. In houses that are situated near honey locusts, the large, heavy seed pods are sometimes stored by the hundreds. Old pods are often used in substitution for sticks as building material in the house. Nevertheless, honey locust is used relatively little as compared with osage orange. Other plants that figure most importantly in the diet include bittersweet, fox grape, pokeberry and horse nettle (Solanum carolinense).
Rainey (op. cit.) mentioned that captive woodrats would eat meat, both cooked and raw, and on one occasion he found remains of a cicada on a house under circumstances suggesting that this insect had been eaten by a rat. In the course of trapping for opossums and small carnivores, woodrats were caught on many occasions by Fitch in traps baited with animal material exclusively—miscellaneous meat scraps, canned dog-food, bacon grease, or carcasses of small vertebrates. In fact, such baits seemed to be even more attractive than the grain, seeds, peanut butter and raisins that had been used customarily to bait the traps set for woodrats. However, such meat baits could be used effectively only in cold weather, because of rapid spoilage and interference by insects at higher temperatures.
On one occasion an adult pilot black snake found dead on the road, a recent traffic victim, was brought to the Reservation headquarters for examination and was left overnight in the garage. On the following morning the carcass of the snake was found to have been dragged a short distance and gnawed; a quantity of flesh was eaten at an exposed wound on the neck. Woodrat tracks were thickly imprinted on the dusty soil around the snake. The adult male woodrat that lived in the garage had evidently spent much time moving about the carcass and over it, and feeding upon it. It seemed remarkable that this individual was not deterred from feeding on the snake by an instinctive fear of one of its chief natural enemies.
Although the eastern woodrat's food consists mostly of vegetation, the strong tendency noted to feed upon flesh when it is available suggests that these rodents may, occasionally at least, prey upon helpless young of small vertebrates that are readily available to them. Nestling birds, either on the ground or in low trees, and young mice in nests that are accessible, might tempt the rat to indulge in predation.