The Rat is associated with Thursday in the Burmese zodiac.
The Burmese zodiac is a seven-day system with eight animal directions because Wednesday is divided into two parts. Thursday’s animal is the Rat, while each weekday is assigned an animal and a compass direction used in traditional astrology.
The system differs from the twelve-animal Chinese zodiac, even though some animals overlap. In Burmese tradition, a person’s weekday of birth is especially important, and the corresponding animal may be used in personal, religious, or astrological symbolism.
Wednesday is split into morning and afternoon, creating the eighth position. The Wednesday-morning animal is the Elephant with tusks, and the Wednesday-afternoon animal is the Elephant without tusks. Thus, Burmese zodiac animals are not simply a shortened version of the Chinese sequence.