The social transmission of food information by roof rats was investigated using three transmitting pathways: horizontal--unrelated adult to adult, oblique--unrelated adult to pup, and vertical--mother to pups. The observer was given a two-choice preference test between two novel diets after it interacted with a demonstrator who had one type of diet. We found that observers showed a significantly higher preference for the diet that demonstrators had consumed in vertical and oblique transmission; no significant preference was observed for the diet consumed in horizontal transmission. Oblique social transmission was stronger for younger than for older pups. Comparing these results with those of Norway rats, it appears that the capacity for social transmission of roof rats became constrained when the observers aged. This could be related to ecological life histories, i.e., opportunistic feeding strategies and social group size.