# Rat Body Language



## watts300 (Aug 3, 2013)

Are there body cues from these guys? Cats and dogs have obvious body language: tail movement, ear position, etc. Even head position can indicate curiosity (especially in dogs). 

Aside from the puffing up and back arching (when defending), what else has been observed? Is there something that shows contentment, curiosity, anything else other than any form of aggression? 

I suppose it's possible I've seen it and didn't know. 




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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

bruxing and boggling for contentment.
tail wags, bounding/popcorning for excitement.
my male's ears radar when he's seen or heard something different, and will stand up to sniff. thats investigation/curiosity.

I don't really know how to describe it but sit with your rats one on one for a few hours. I cant describe it but I feel like I can communicate effectively with my male.


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## watts300 (Aug 3, 2013)

nanashi7 said:


> bruxing and boggling for contentment.
> tail wags, bounding/popcorning for excitement.
> my male's ears radar when he's seen or heard something different, and will stand up to sniff. thats investigation/curiosity.
> .


I'm not sure I know what bruxing and boggling looks like. But I haven't seen any tail wagging that's for sure. I have seen them each stand up on their hind legs for one reason or another. I'll be watching their ears more closely. 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Bruxing sounds like they're chewing up or grinding food. Boggling is hard to spot for me, their eyes go alien-esque and will look bigger.
http://www.ratbehavior.org/Glossary.htm


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## watts300 (Aug 3, 2013)

Oh bruxing is a sound. I might have heard Sammy doing that when I was holding him to help him get used to me. He's still timid. It kind of reminded me of a chimpanzee grunting very rapidly. 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

When I first heard it I thought Remus had tore the carpet up again, it was then that I learned what bruxing was.
For the littler rats it sort of sounded like an old car to me.


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## lalalauren (Jul 3, 2013)

Boggling is so much fun to watch! My boys don't really do it very much, but one of them did what I THOUGHT was boggling every time I gave him food. His eyes would get HUGE, and I'd just go "hey look, Athos is happy", and he was happy, of course, because he loves to eat.

Then I watched a video of a rat boggling (there's loads on Youtube) and it looks hilarious! A few days later, I saw Thaddius boggle for the first time while I was talking to him. It's crazy, it's like something has crawled under the skin on their heads and it's moving around (possibly a gross description, I'm sorry!). But yeah, check out "rat boggling" or something on Youtube. There's also rats bruxing on there for you to take a look at/listen to.


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## JBird (May 23, 2013)

Rat body language is very subtle, that's for sure, but I have noticed that it's very similar to a typical cat's body language. Dogs are very blatant with their body language, so an animal who is much more subtle (like a cat or a small animal) may be harder to read. 

If you watch closely, you will notice what your rat is thinking of his environment. His ears will perk up when he hears something, and will "radar dish" around if he is interested. He will cautiously approach something he finds interesting, smelling it the whole way. A rat with confidence will hop or walk straight towards something they want to see. A timid rat will stick low to the ground, approaching slowly or moving in short bursts of speed, from one location of cover to the next. He is not necessarily scared, but he is not confident in that situation. 
A content rat will have squinty eyes, a relaxed body posture. If he's enjoying his pets, he will Brux (much like purring), and occasionally boggle his eyes out if he is very happy! An excited and happy rat will run about, exploring, smelling, and bruxing the whole way. Like a kitty with a new toy, their eyes will be bright and their feet never stop moving! 
I've noticed that rats are most content when sleeping in their bed/hammock. When I approach them to wake them up, they almost always wake up happily and groom my fingers, brux, and love getting pets. As soon as they are awake, it's playtime and they want nothing to do with being cuddly!!


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## JTred (May 5, 2013)

JBird said:


> A timid rat will stick low to the ground, approaching slowly or moving in short bursts of speed, from one location of cover to the next. He is not necessarily scared, but he is not confident in that situation.


I'd add that a timid or not-quite-confident rat will sometimes sort of stretch toward whatever they are interested in. Basically their front legs crawl forward and the back legs stay firmly planted where they are.


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## roaringsnail (Aug 1, 2013)

This is a very useful page, I find. It has all sorts of rat noises to listen to. http://www.ratbehavior.org/norway_rat_vocalizations.htm


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

I'd like to add that you get two different kinds of tail waggling and two different kinds of bruxing. The first kind of each shows stress and potential aggression (for example, bruxing when nervous or uncomfortable, or swishing the tail when about to fight with another rat). The second kind of each shows great contentment (e.g. bruxing and boggling with eyes closed when being skritched, wriggling the tail when being skritched and happy). Not many people see the wriggling because they may have rats that are not aggressive to their others, but also do not wriggle them when being petted. Only certain rats seem to wriggle when very happy. My new girl Daisy is a tail wriggler but she loves being stroked all over her head and will happily sit for over 15 mins straight being skritched. My girlfriend's heart rat Bella will sit until she falls asleep being skritched, and she wriggles her tail and boggles like mad! Sometimes we think her eyes are gonna pop out haha.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I wrote a bit of a guide for my club magazine. It's on my website here http://isamu.weebly.com/behaviour.html , I've got to do the last section but I know a fair few people have found it useful.


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