# Sitting in upper cage corner, are they bored?



## supMike (Dec 10, 2011)

Hey all, I've got a couple of female ratties. After I cleaned their cage the other day, they've taken to sitting in the upper corner of their cage (3rd level) where their food bowl is. Their eyes are open, but they're not really moving. I've only had them for two months, and I'm new to rats. Is this kind of behavior normal on occasion? As soon as I walk up / open their cage, they are more than willing to interact with me, and I just saw one of 'em yawn when I did this last - so I'm not too worried about their health... but they're not eating the breadcrumbs in their food tray, which they normally gobble up like lightning. 
I let them out in my living room today, but they seemed more interested in just chilling with me in my sweater.

Why are they so lethargic? Why are they hanging out in the open like this? Are they just bored? When they're really clamoring for attention, they're clambering all over the bars of the cage, not just sitting. Shouldn't they should be snuggling up in their nest box? At least they're not sleeping in their litter box... I really can't complain about their behavior thus far, they've been very tame and good about licking rather than biting my fingers.

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Edit:
Came across this and was reassured.
http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.php?45495-odd-sleeping&highlight=strange


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## Ressal (Oct 18, 2011)

Glad to see you found a previous thread that reassured you, but just to give another opinion, I often find my girls asleep on the ramps, on the floor, and sometimes even balancing on the rope that hangs throughout the cage. They're just doing their own ratty things. If they were bored, they wouldn't be sitting still. They'd be up to absolute mischief making entertainment for themselves. Don't stress yourself over it


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## HighwayStar (Aug 20, 2010)

I agree with Ressal. Sometimes my ladies just sit in the corner and watch me. If they were bored they would make some fun.


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## supMike (Dec 10, 2011)

*Thanks*

Thank you so much for the input. It's amazing how easy it is to anthropomorphize these little creatures. They have unique personalities, they make random decisions like we do... you know, their ancestors are probably the ancestors of all mammals on this planet. They survived whatever did in the dinosaurs, or so the current wisdom goes.


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## meekosan (Dec 23, 2011)

Thanks so much for this thread and reference to the other one. I'm new here so still poking around and just got a pair of females that are quite young yet so the behavior is new to me. I've had single ones previously but also in much smaller cages (single level) so for the one to hang out at the top with all that space baffled me....


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## HighwayStar (Aug 20, 2010)

Meekosan, I have that bed you have in your avatar photo.  But my ladies decided it looked better in a million pieces. D:


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