# Are rats eyesight really that bad?



## jerme (May 29, 2012)

I've always read they are basically a step away from being blind. But it never seemed to me that their eyesight is THAT bad. One of my newer rats just taught himself how to jump off my bed, he was doing so by jumping off the bed and landing on a small stepstool i keep about 2 feet away.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Some rats are nearly blind, but some have decent eyesight. None can see well enough to see the floor, etc, from your bed if it's at a decent height, but they will jump if they're smart enough to pick up on the fact that something is down there. One of my girls figured out how to jump to me (up to two feet away) and then one day realized that meant I was standing on something, too, and now she'll jump down from wherever if she's seen me standing near there. They're clever little creatures.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Black eyed rats (and ruby eyed rats) have 600/20 vision. the average near sighted person is about 40/20 or so. Pink eyed rats have 1200/20 vision.

Rats can be close to blind, but they still have depth perception, and can still judge how far away something is. I've had rats (even my boy Soda who has a cataracts in one eye) jump 2 or more feet.


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

Darker eyed rats generally have better vision, I think, but yeah, rats rely more on their sense of smell/hearing/memory/experience. My dark-eyed rat seems to have great eyesight for a rat (though, yes, typically a rats' eyesight is not the best), but she never sways to see things and is extremely bold about where she jumps (she's had a few misses, but for the most part if she sees a platform across the way from the bed, she's goin' for it, and most of the time she's spot on, even if she's never jumped there before.)
My ruby eyed rat, however, sways for a loooooooong time to focus on things, never jumps across distances she doesn't know, and runs head-on into walls/chairs/boxes, you name it. So though ruby eyed rats (along with dark-eyed) are averagely considered to have better eyesight than pink-eyed, I'd say it also just depends a lot on your unique rats and genetics. Some dark eyed rats'll just have better eyes than other dark eyed rats, some worse than they're supposed to...some PEWS might even turn out with better eyesight than most. I tend to want to think it varies with genetics, since I have a dark ruby eyed who acts like she can't see two centimeters in front of her face. There's always those variations in the average; perhaps your rats just drew the lucky straws. C:


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## iHayleyNorris (Jul 28, 2012)

I have a PEW who sways allllllllllllllllll the time. I firmly believe he is mostly blind. You have to move REALLY slowly if you want to touch him, or he'll scream and jump a mile. It's actually kinda sad. Poor little guy. 

But my hooded agouti with black eyes can see the cat's tail flicking 10 feet across the room and chase after the tail and the 20 pound Maine **** cat attached to it. Haha. 

Rats' eyesight really does vary greatly. I'm curious to find out how well my Himalayan can see. He doesn't quite have ruby eyes, but they are much much darker than the PEW.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## monster_paws (Jan 17, 2013)

Poor things. I wear 4.00 contacts and bump into things every time I take them off D:


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## pwoink (Feb 19, 2013)

Here's a neat site with a video rendition of what the world looks like through rattie eyes.


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## WinonaGun42 (Feb 2, 2013)

I have two ratties with Ruby eyes and one with dark eyes. 
My girl with ruby eyes doesn't sway and I think she sees just fine. I have sunflower seeds and dried corn (for treats) in a closed mason jar and cheerios in another. I take either of those out of the food box and I swear she can see them over 4 feet away. I have quite a few things in the same type of jar, but the cheerios, sunflower seeds and corn are the only ones she goes absolutely nuts over when I pull them in to view.
My Black Hooded, with black eyes, can see really well.

My Beige Hooded boy, on the other hand, I don't think he sees very well at all. He has ruby eyes and sways all the time. I open his bottom cage door and he sways while looking at the desk 4 inches from the bottom. I hold a spoon of baby food in the bottom door of his cage and he is running along the inside edge looking for it. He actually has to bump in to the spoon to find where it is. He can smell it, but it takes him a while to find it. 
Also, when I go up to the cage, he is very fearful unless I am talking to him in my soft voice. If I don't talk to him, he will cower in his box until he hears me speak. Then he will run to the top shelf and sway his head back and forth at me. My face can be 3 inches from his face and he's still doing it.

My PEW boys, one of them practically could not see at all and would do the sway thing all the time. Luckily, he has his "helper rat" buddy who I think could see OK. If I let them explore a new area, Chewie would practically "herd" Han around the area by walking next to him and guiding him. It was so funny to see them walking shoulder to shoulder until Han got the feel of the place. I didn't change their cage around too often. I left a ramp off one time after a cleaning and Han fell two levels because he tried walking on to a ramp that wasn't there any more. Nosedive right off the level. I felt so bad.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Some rats have quite remarkable eyesight (for a rat). My big girl Fuzzy Rat has lead us home from the park using only landmarks from watching us walking there from over half a mile away. And she navigated quite confidently outdoors during the day. She would jump into the lake and swim to my daughter or myself out to about 30 feet from shore. Just yesterday the weather was warmish so we took her out in the yard and she lead me from the middle of the yard, to the path alongside the side of the house, under my car and then right to the front steps, up the steps and right up to the front door. As she hasn't been outdoors all winter she was definitely not navigating by sense of smell. She also did detours of up to 6 feet to check out things she noticed along the way. She stopped and waited when I fell more than about 10 feet behind her. Even at two years old and in failing health her eyesight is still strong.

When it gets dark, she takes off for the car or the house, I always thought it strange for a rat not to like the dark until I realized that just like us, she can't see too well in the dark. Having great eyesight is part of what makes her confident in open spaces and a very special true shoulder rat. Fuzzy Rat has natural dark eyes.

Our part wild girl was also very confident outdoors, but she only navigated outdoors at night, she always followed walls and landmarks and rarely if ever crossed wide open spaces. In order to handle her, we had to talk to her first, then let her sniff us and then we could pick her up. Amelia, with black eyes that flash red... (super dark ruby) will see me from several feet away and freeze, as soon as I say something she'll run up to me. But I'll chalk that up to she can see me but not necessarily well enough to know who I am. Amelia is a train wreck disaster outdoors and freaks out in open spaces. I tried calling her from about 50 feet away and she broke cover to run to me, but then detoured for cover along the way. It was a very bright sunny day and I can't honestly say if she really saw me or came towards the sound. Indoors she's pretty comfortable crossing opens spaces.

So, for rats with normal eyes at least, some can have decent vision in bright light, whereas others are pretty near sighted. The dimmer the lights, the more they rely on their whiskers to navigate running along walls and such. In pitch black places like inside walls they use their whiskers to feel their way along and gauge the size of openings. 

It's hard to tell from appearances which rat can see better, but Fuzzy Rats eyes are more deeply sunken into her head and less beady than normal. She has a short blunt snout and wide head shape. If you look closely at my avatar photo you'll notice her eyes don't look quite normal. But the eye height is a matter of thousands of an inch and not something you would pick up on if you didn't have two rats in your hand.

I truly suspect that if we were to really study the other true shoulder rats owned by people in this forum we would find that they have great eyesight too. Imagine the behavioral difference between a rat that can see great distances whereas another can only see a couple of feet when it comes to being in an open field, it's like the difference in a human of being blind or sighted.









Fuzzy Rat is the tiny white speck next to the black trash can. She's going back to the car. Her excursion started way back on the other end of the pier, she will pass the blue roofed building then turn right to cross the brown bridge in the distance and left to follow the railing along the parking lot to the car where she will usually find the correct car. 

So, finally no. Not all rats are tragically nearsighted. That said, I'm guessing that true shoulder rats make up about one hundredth of a percent of the pet rat population. So the odds are against either of us seeing another one quite like Fuzzy Rat, but I'm guessing that there's a real range of visual abilities in among the normal eyed rats. 

As to the pink eyed rats, prolonged exposure to bright light can cause them macular degeneration. So if you did find one with great bright sunlight vision, (if it's even possible) I'm guessing it would be a very bad idea to take advantage of it. 

When Fuzzy Rat could still climb, she liked to hang out in treetops preening munching leaf buds and watching people walk by.









Footnote: Sending your rat up a tall tree or across a wide open field while you hang back to take a photo is a very bad idea for a normal rat. You will get it lost or killed.


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## PeachPeach (Jun 22, 2012)

My boys are almost blind, as their coloration indicates. While they can jump and dart confidently if need be, they're very cautious of drops (jumps up are fine, jumps down are never done). Much head swaying and sniffling around is also seen, which I'd expect given their visual acuity. Their other senses are fine, though, so it doesn't seem to affect their quality of life much.


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## Cherubim (Dec 6, 2007)

iHayleyNorris said:


> I have a PEW who sways allllllllllllllllll the time. I firmly believe he is mostly blind. You have to move REALLY slowly if you want to touch him, or he'll scream and jump a mile. It's actually kinda sad. Poor little guy.
> 
> But my hooded agouti with black eyes can see the cat's tail flicking 10 feet across the room and chase after the tail and the 20 pound Maine **** cat attached to it. Haha.
> 
> ...


My rat Romeo is an Albino and he does the swaying! Apparently the reason they sway is because they do it to 'focus' and get a clearer picture of what they're trying to look at ^_^


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## eaturbyfill (Aug 23, 2012)

My girls can't see very well. All three tend to sway their heads to try to focus.


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