The rats they eat are usually ricefield rats (yes, it’s a distinct species) which infest the rice paddies and eat their crops, wild rats they catch and fry up.
They also like the bamboo rats, which are bigger and fatter (and kinda cute) as seen in this story about a rat farmer:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/rats-09152023161108.html
These are not nasty like the urban rats we know (which they also have in abundance and are not at all cute). So, yeah, more like squirrels when it comes to eating them. But like all rats, they do carry leptospirosis. But you get it from their urine, not from eating them (kinda like hantavirus)
Export of rats for meat to Vietnam is big business in Cambodia. Heaven knows those people need a break, so glad to see them make money off those rats.
They supposedly taste like pork, but I can’t personally vouch for that. I drew the line at lizard (which tasted kinda swampy, but it was water monitor, so... of course it did). No, I did not try the fried spiders, scorpions, etc. And certainly not “Cambodian popcorn” (giant flying cockroaches, legs removed, fried up in a wok). I did eat some cricket legs used as a salad garnish at a wedding feast by mistake as it was getting dark and I could not see them. Had no idea they were there until I was asked how I liked this delicacy after I ate the salad. Oops.
We have our ideas about what can be eaten these days. My Dad and his brothers hunted squirrels as kids during the Depression for my grandmother to fry up and thought they were yummy. They eschewed possum meat even in those tough times, however. Some people did eat possums back then, though. People gotta eat!
My rule of thumb is:
I will eat anything that does not eat me first.
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Acts 10:9-16
New International Version
Peter’s Vision
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.