# Acting Strange for a Long Time



## misskelseywrong

Hello I have two rats, Milo and Jasper. They just turned two and they have been acting very weird for several months and I don't know what to do. Milo had always been shy and reserved and didn't like to leave the cage often, while Jasper had always been very friendly and loved to come out and spend time with me. The past few months, it's like the extremes of their personalities have been cranked up to 11.I haven't been able to get Milo to willingly leave the cage in MONTHS and if I do drag him out, he freaks out and pees and poops everywhere and tries to get back to the cage, even if it means jumping and hurting himself. It has made cleaning their cage near impossible.On the completely opposite spectrum, Jasper can't stand to be away from me. He gnaws at the metal cage bars and races to sit on my shoulder. He ONLY wants to sit on my shoulder, no matter where else I try to put him, and he will similar almost hurt himself trying to get there, even fighting against me. It hurts to put him back in the cage and see how upset he is. I have been worried because I haven't been able to get either of them to play. I tried to buy them different toys and enrich their cage, but I can't get them to engage. I wanted to floor training them because I wanted to give them more room to run around and also keep my bed clean, but nothing changed. I decided to suck it up and put them back on my bed but STILL nothing changed. The ONLY thing that is different is that we moved, I also went on vacation so someone else took care of them. The thing about this is that I have gone on vacation before and have had other people take care of them, and it only took them one day to readjust. I had also taken them to my parents place for two weeks for Christmases, and again it only took them a day to adjust. I have been in my new apartment for almost two months and they still havent adjusted. (I was staying at my parents place for 3 months in-between, where they still acted strange but not THIS strange) They also never boggle anymore. I have no idea what is wrong or how to make them play and be happy. My new roommate has a cat but 1. They were acting like this before the cat moved in 2. the cat isn't allowed in my room and 3. when they DO see the cat, Jasper actually goes up to sniff him.I wanted to know if anyone else has seen an intense change in behavior with their rats or knows how I can engage them with toys and playtime


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## a1phanine

Any chance they suffered some trauma from whoever took care of them while you were away?
Did they know how to take care of rats properly?

Hows it going? Sorry for the slow reply Ive noticed this forum is dying a bit, i'm going to try to help out more


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## Rat Mother

My guess (without any research or experience with this particular issue) would be that there was a major change in their atmosphere. Is there maybe something they are inhaling that could be affecting their brain? Perhaps your room is scented with a wall plug-in, or something in their cage is soaking up urine and releasing ammonia? Anything else in their environment that could cause them extreme stress? Something to look out for would be barbering. Are their front arms balding and/or is the hair around their back legs thinner and/or gone? Barbering is a sign of stress. It could be some underlying illness. When our rat Zoey died, she had some sort of heart attack/seizure. One moment she was fine, the next she was running into my brothers shirt for safety and the next she was dead. The point of that sad anecdote is that if Jasper is more snuggly, it's possible you are his safe place and he isn't feeling well. If Milo was never super comfortable with you, his safe place would be the cage and he could be ill as well. Again, I'm just shooting into the dark. If your situation hasn't been resolved, then I would consider it all thoroughly. Even minor changes can have an affect on our babies.


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