Would rats work in bait like mice do, i was going to grind some whole and preserve them fresh, and then i was going to do some tainted with a bit of castor and skunk? I'm talking about brown rats like you find on dairy farms not muskrats

Work good from my experience. Word of advice rats taint fast.

works well

be careful while handle grinding them wear eye protection, one drop in your eye and you could be exposed to all sorts of nasty stuff, i catch them around the shed and freeze them whole. use them in cat cubbies or big dirtholes for the visual tease, i save all my bunny tails for the same thing down a dirthole or hollow log, caught allot on packrats and chipmunks but not so much on squirrels unless your after skunk and possum,

Ya they work fine I prefer to gutt every other one! It holds a better tainted rodent smell in my opinion. To much intestine tends to result in a runnier finished product in my results