# Suddenly skittish?



## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

I was away for a night, and when I came back it seems like Gizka, my friendliest girl, has suddenly become super skittish and jumpy. I've been worried about her because her teeth have seemed a bit splayed and she was losing weight. She's always been my little hyper socialite, but her being so afraid is really breaking my heart. It seems like she's eating even less now, and I couldn't even coax her out of my sleeve for a little piece of dark Chocolate or her favorite mashed peas (though she did carefully take a whole pea from my hand).

She's had nothing else like sneezing or anything at all and she's been great although a bit underweight for about two weeks. What could be making her so jumpy? Her cage mate loves her to death and they're always snuggling and Nerf even shares her treats with her. 

I miss my bright-eyed little trouble making princess ;~;

They both eat Harlan Teklad (2018 as one is 11 weeks now and Gizka is just at 9), supplemented with lots of veggies and some fruit. Gizka's been getting mashed peas to try and help gain her some weight too. I don't know if food would have anything to do with her recent behavior, though.


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

she seems a little more like herself today and I'm wondering if it was the smells of the place I had been at (they have a dog) that was bothering her and making her nervous. I'm trying to tempt her into eating more with treats, but watching her it seems she's doing a lot more stashing than eating. (They had a boiled egg as a treat today and the little munchkin dragged a whole half of it up to her stash place before running down to try and steal Nerf's!)

She seems hungry, and she's still so thin but all she wants to do is grab and stash, grab and stash, over and over again.


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## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

Strange animal smells certainly can affect a rodent's behaviour, so that might've been a factor in her skittishness if she's not used to dog-scent; one of my girls gets very upset and frightened if she catches a whiff of either of my boys. It's quite normal, although I wouldn't imagine the effects of that would be long-lasting beyond the washing of your hands and a change of clothes.

If you normally see your girl stuffing her face and now she suddenly is only picking at her food, something may be wrong; if you watch her even more closely over the course of the day and she is still eating a normal amount despite the weight loss, you should perhaps weigh her every day for the next week and see if the loss is dramatic; losing weight is normally pretty rapid in rats if they're not well. Weight loss is often an early sign that something's up and an ill rat doesn't always lose it's appetite. It's not like a rat to refuse their favourite treat. Sounds like she will probably require a vet to have a look at her, just to check her out; I hope she'll be alright. Hopefully it's a good sign that she seems otherwise Ok.


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

I took her out for some major playtime earlier with her buddy, and she was hyper happy jumping everywhere, and even bruxing a little which she NEEEEEVEEEERRR does. So maybe she was scared by the scent and annoyed at me for being gone for as long as I was? 

She's always been a food stasher; I mean crazy about it. She's one of those that you can hand the same piece of food over and over and she'll make laps running up and stashing it. But until recently she didn't seem to be losing any weight. I think I will start weighing her, maybe keep a little diary of what I see her eat and her weight and play time and such throughout the day for about a week or so. I won't have the cash for a vet trip until this coming weekend. If she seems any worse I'll run her right over. Her weight loss seems more gradual than rapid, too. I'm not sure if maybe she's forgetting her stashed food; I started pulling what she stashes back to her bowl so maybe that'll encourage her to EAT some of it.

And it's so weird because she's so thin and her cagemate is actually on the heavier side, but Gizka is the dominate one and always stealing food from Nerf, the fatter one (even though Gizka is smaller than her too. She's just an explosive personality). Opposites in every way, these two.

Thank you! ^__^


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## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

Hehe, my boy Loki is very much a stasher, he takes all the food from his bowl into his igloo immediately; sometimes I wonder if he's trying to trick me into refilling it for him again! 

The diary is a great idea, then you'll have a written account that you can read over in one go which makes noticing change easier than trying to do it over several days at a time with just your memory. She sounds like she'll hold out fine until the weekend, you're obviously observant about your ratties so you'll notice if she takes a funny turn anyway. I've seen rodent treats in Pets at Home before that have something in them that stimulates the appetite a little bit, I don't know if such a thing is available locally to you though. With luck, your vet will offer some insight. I have 4 girls sharing a cage, 3 of them have podgy little tummies and one of them has a very slender frame, she doesn't have a big appetite but has never suffered for it, which is lucky as the other 3 are little piggies that steal from each other all the time. Maybe Gizka doesn't feel the need to munch like mad since she's never contested by Nerf!


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

Haha, that's pretty possible too. I think Nerf might raid her stash a little when she's not looking, though. Nerf rarely ever puts up any sort of a fight with Giz, though where Nerf came from she was the smallest of eleven babies plus two big females, so I guess she's a little used to getting beaten up and losing her food. That's also probably why she eats like it's going out of style. Gizka was small in her litter too, but she's just so darn dominate that Nerf can't argue lol.

I'll look and see if I can find treats like that somewhere. The boiled egg I gave them today seemed to perk Gizka up; afterward her energy seemed to return. I'm still suspicious that it might be trouble with her teeth, and the bruxing she was doing sounded a little different than bruxing I've heard before (a little more crunchy, I guess? Not sure), so maybe that'll help. She's taking treats now too. Hopefully she was just being a bratty diva since she was without playtime so long haha. I think a vet trip would be a good idea, though, just in case.


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## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

Good to hear she's snacking more  Maybe her teeth have had a growth spurt and are a little long now, that happened to a hamster of mine once; he wouldn't chew on anything to keep them down and they wound up needing clipped. I'm sure she's forgiven you now, haha; so if she was just mad at you, hopefully you won't have any more bother!


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