We have a new rat in the household, and he has a very strange habit. No matter what he's doing, he curls his tail just like a little piggy. Running around he curls it up and carries it over his back, playing, he curls it... He can straighten it, and does sometimes, but it's almost like he prefers it curled, and I was wondering if anyone else has ever had a rat that does this. I've included a picture of our Zenny playing in the wheel, that shows his curly tail.
Winter brings forced air heating, and after a few months of this, my girls developed the sniffles. They made their first vet visit this week, and they were very well behaved. They were a perfect example of why it's good to have two or more rats of the same sex - when they weren't being examined, poked, weighed, etc, they calmly curled up in their snuggle snack with their heads sticking out, and stared curiously at the vet.
The vet let me know that Louder has absolutely gorgeous fur and bright, healthy eyes, but with a very worrying weight problem. My little girl is over 400 grams, which is huge for a female! I've been asked to help Louder lose weight. We got to the bottom of them problem when I got home - the other half has been baking special cookies for the rats, and feeding them while I'm not around. No wonder she's fat, she's gorging on cookies!
Plachowski is a more slender 330 grams, with an easily treatable respiratory infection. How easily treatable, you ask? She cannot get enough of her Baytril and Doxycycline. She grabs the syringes out of my hands and slurps it all down as fast as she can. In all of my years of rat ownership, I've never encountered a single rat that doesn't try to kill me at medication time, let alone like it. Of course, when it's time for a dose of Metacam, I have to retrieve her from under the couch or off the ceiling.
We discussed Plachowski's peculiar tail habits, and the vet was stumped. This is a rat who wags her tail like a golden retriever. The vet has heard of rats wagging their tails as a sign of irritation, aggression, frustration, but never as a sign of happiness or excitement. She wondered out loud if this could be a sign of epilepsy in Plachowski, and the tail wagging a small seizure? I've been asked to keep an eye out on the rat when she wags her tail to try to see what's going on in her eyes when it happens.
It is most certainly not a seizure. This is one happy animal, as far as I can tell. In fact, I caught her wagging her tail last night like a puppy, and all of the lights were on upstairs. Next thing I knew, a ball of black fur came flying at my face. She wags her tail before she jumps, like she's overcome with excitement at being super naughty.
So... any other tail waggers out there? Moo and Mulder used to wag their tails when you pet them in just the right spots, and sometimes Louder does that too. Mulder used to wag her tail if you tried to take away a beloved treat, and then she'd get aggressive. But happy golden retriever type wagging? Yeah, I'm stumped.
1. Sometimes I play a game with our rat Akira (She's my little brother's rat, but the whole family loves her C: ) where she'll walk to one of my hands, and I'll lightly grab the front half of her body (tight enough for her to have to struggle to get out, but not tight enough to hurt her, I think) and sometimes I'll wiggle my hand to get her excited (and maybe I'll make some noise too), and then if she hasn't gotten loose after a few seconds, I'll let go, and she'll go running right back to my hand. It's cute, hahah. (I hope it doesn't sound like a cruel game. :c)
When we played "rat trap" earlier, I heard her clicking/chattering until I let go, then she stopped. She's never done this when we've played our trap game before. Was she happy/excited? Telling me to be more gentle? I'm assuming that she wasn't freaking out since she always comes back for more and she's never bitten or nibbled me. :T Could it be unrelated to the game? I cleaned off the guest bed earlier today (which had a bunch of my clothes and junk on it) so she had more room to roam.
2. Sometimes we'll click and whistle at her. She used to talk back when we first got her (a little over a month ago), but now she doesn't really do it anymore, except for random clicking, and occasionally in situations like the one above. Any particular reason for this? She's pretty outgoing and friendly, she doesn't strike me as the shy type.
3. Are there any special noises that people can make to rats? Like sounds they like? Sounds they don't like? Our rat doesn't really respond to whistling, and I don't wanna accidentally make some noise to upset her when I'm trying to play. Hahah, I feel silly for asking this.
(I'd make an intro post but I'd rather wait until I have some pictures, and she won't stand still right now. I'll try again later. XP And is this long enough to need a cut? If it does, I'll edit it ASAP)
Name you go by: Sharyla Age: 24 Location: Northwestern, PA How many rats you have?: 2 Pictures of your ratties:( Collapse )
Hello everyone!
I'm here to introduce myself to this community, which I'm really glad that I've found. I've had rats off and on since I was in jr. high when I rescued Curry from my science teacher who apparently had no clue how to care for them. Since then I've had Curry (f), Jewel (f), Freddie (m), Abner (m) and Socrates (m) and now Malice and Harper.
I've had Malice (who is two weeks older than Harper) and Harper since the beginning of May. I've never had rats that are as young as they are.
Now, since I'm joining this group, I feel that I should be honest. In the first month that I've had them, I have not paid the attention to them the deserve. We have had a LOT of family drama happen since then, but I'm recifying that now. I spend at the least an hour with them hanging out with me and getting excercise. Today Malice got to spend quite a bit of time with run of the bed. She was loving it! I'd like to get them both to a point where I can use a voice or some sort of noise command to get them to come back to me, but I don't know how to do it. :(
I do have a few questions because it's been a while and I'm not sure about some things.
1. Today, while I had Malice out, she was making a teeth nashing sound...and I can't remember what purring sounds like :( So I don't know if she was upset that I told her she couldn't hide behind my books, or if she was happy.
I also wondered what everyone does to help ensure their little ratties get proper exercise.
A few nights ago I came home to discover that my rats Margaux and Harriet were eating the body of Scout, my youngest rat. My friend removed the body after I booked it to another friend's room and had a meltdown. I know this isn't the most uncommon thing in the world, but had this happened to anyone else? Moreso, what is the appropriate course of action with Margaux and Harriet?
My baby, Sailor, makes this sound every time I'm holding her...I'm concerned because as I understand it, it's a noise of stress or anxiety. Yet, she doesn't struggle or squeak or make any other complaint. She'll do it even when she's just hanging out on my shoulder. Obviously I don't want to be stressing her out, but I'm not doing anything, just chilling with her. Is there some other explanation for this sound, or something I can do to make her feel more secure?
Thanks for any info! Here's a pic that she's being quite good for!
I've got my Jenks on my shoulder right now and he sounds like he's grooming but I'm not sure (he might just be eating my hair), I don't think he's bruxing (or at least not bruxing in happiness this being his first sojourn on my shoulder with a curious dog nearby.)
He's right by my ear and he's cleaning and he sounds like he's chewing a little too. What kind of noises do (possibly stressed out) rats make when cleaning?
So my baby is doing so well with her new huge litter box and fleece lined floors.... but i come home tonight and she's taken to bringing one of her new pieces of scrap (a glove at one point) into her box. As i was cleaning it out i noticed half of one of her chews in there too. And as i type, she's sitting in her poop box, eating a piece of her lab block. How can i discourage this? She was being so great about using it just to do her business!
Today I noticed some liquid seeping though the bottom of one of the rat hammocks. A shooed out the girls and found that it in fact was pee and there were also a few poops too. I took out this bed too wash and both rats have been using the litter box since then and both rats were are very active and playful this morning, so Im not worried that one might have a UTI or anything like that. I really think my rats would rather just pee in bed then move the foot or so to the litter box! So, I guess I'll try moving this bed really close to the litter box?
Has anyone else had an issue like this? My rats are 90% litter box trained (one of them doesnt get it as well as the other...). Rodents aren't supposed to eat or sleep where they go to the bathroom, but clearly my rats arent bothered... any advice?
My hairless rat, Peaches Fetus Thoreau (or just Fetus) is a serial humper. Out of nowhere, she'll run after the nearest rat, mount, and hump them! I've checked and rechecked her anatomy countless times (out of sheer paranoia) and she is, without a doubt, female. Is this some sort of dominant behavior? I know it's super common in the canine world, but I've never heard of a dominance-humping rat!
PS. She's at the bottom of the pecking order. Youngest, smallest, and most nakedest. Is she trying to move up in the ranks?
PPS. Sorry my photos aren't great; it's hard to capture a moving target. But here's one anyway for a glimpse of the perpetrator. I love Fetus, she's such a little turd :)
inquisitive