# Rat acts like she's she's shaking off water



## Raturday (May 26, 2012)

I tried looking this up online but didn't find a definitive answer. When I let my rat Zoey run around my room or other areas of the house, she runs around and then shakes like a dog would if he was shaking off water from a bath. Just wondering why she does this! Is it from happiness?

Thanks for any answers


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

ear infection maybe?

Or some type of brain/nerve issues? there are some issues that would cause excessive head shaking

She could also have lice or mites, some animals if they feel stuff crawling on them they'll do stuff like that to get them off.

I've never heard of a rat doing this for anything other then medical issues, or parasites.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Is there any chance that you could get a video of this?


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## Raturday (May 26, 2012)

I don't have a video camera and my cell phone has really crappy video but I can see what I can do.
It's not from mites as I recently treated all my rats with Revolution for that.
She doesn't shake for long and it's randomly as she's running along. She just shakes her body side to side.
It's not really her head, just her body shaking.
I've taken her to the vet a million times so I think if it was a common ear infection the vet would have noticed from examining her ears. 
Maybe I'm wrong about that though.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ARe you sure its not her head? Some of my rats when in a playful silly mood do a head shake that also ends up moving their body...if you think its playful put your hand over her head an dshoulders from the front and give her a very gentle shake. This often initiates a play session


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## Raturday (May 26, 2012)

Guess I'm not entirely sure! It's definitely a full body shake. I do that to her all the time and she will go hopping away and then come back for another ruffle! I think because I usually don't let her run around the whole house (just my room normally), she was super excited and just did that shake while she was running around. She was having a good time.


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## JLSaufl (Jan 20, 2013)

It sounds like she's popcorning to me, search YouTube for videos of rats popcorning and see if that looks familiar. My male rats shake constantly when they're out playing, or if I'm wrestling them in their cage.


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## Raturday (May 26, 2012)

It definitely looks similar to popcorning. That's probably what it is. For some reason I associate popcorning with just jumping up and down but it looks like it includes shaking a bit as well.


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## Hamsterific (Jan 14, 2013)

Yep, sounds like popcorning. My rats shake like that too when they're excited ;D


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## Raturday (May 26, 2012)

Just making sure it wasn't a sign of any illness! She's so cute when she does it


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