# Rats don't "brux" out of happiness



## Cyrix

I'm sick of people telling others that bruxing is a sign of happiness. Sure, and a baby cries because it's having a grand old time. Rats chatter and boggle because they are uncomfortable, irritated, or unhappy. If you toss out your preconceptions and pay attention to it, it's as plain as day. They brux when they're sick. They brux when they think you're holding out on some treats. They brux when you give them a bath (how many animals with fur like getting a bath?). They brux when you pin them down and pet/scritch them and there is nothing they can do about it (how would you feel if a four-story ogre pinned you to the floor and started violently rubbing your back? Would you start laughing and singing with joy?)

How do your rats look when they're "bruxing"? Are they slunk down low, with their eyes squinted? Ever notice they make that same expression when they're ill or after you scold them? If a rat looks depressed and it's chattering its teeth, maybe it's depressed.

I've never seen a video of a rat bruxing where it wasn't immediately obvious that the rat was unhappy. Please try to demonstrate a video of a rat bruxing in happiness where you don't have it cornered or pinned under your hand.

If your rat is unhappy that you're aggressively petting it, why doesn't it run away? Well, why doesn't a rat run away from an aggressive power grooming? Maybe they're not genetically programmed that way. Maybe they don't think they can escape.

Throw out your preconceptions. Forget some irresponsible person told you that bruxing = purring. Watch a video of a rat bruxing with the sound turned off. Pay attention to the body language. A rat isn't a goldfish - they glare, grimace, and wince just like people do.

Sure, there may be some exceptions. Some dogs like baths. Some cats get along fine with rodents. Some humans are masochists. That doesn't mean your rat is happy when it grinds its teeth.


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## mimsy

Rats grind their teeth to file them down. So it's not quite the same as a baby crying. The only rat I had that never did that, had to be brought to vet monthly to have his teeth clipped. Many do it to relieve stress as well, so can also be sign of distress or pain. My half wild boys if they see one of their brothers they don't get along with they will do it loudly, and it's definitely not contentment. People have to watch the rest of the signs. A mellow rat may be just grinding his teeth to wear them down. I don't know about it equaling a cat purring because it's different and has a purpose. I do have a girl who will do it any time we give treats, and I'm sure you are correct about her wanting more. She also does it when she is excited, I would not say she is sad/angry, but just excited. Like when she sneaks over a barrier and gets into a new location and is in high excited checking it out mode.

So my opinion, it's a normal thing with rats and you need to read yours to understand the difference between I'm filing my teeth, I'm excited, I'm hurt, I'm scared and I'm angry. The grinding alone really doesn't say much by itself.


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## YTCrazyRatLady

In my opinion it varies. I've had Rats that just really enjoyed my company and would be bruxing. I've also had 2 rats that would wiggle their tale when completely relaxed, even though most of the time tale wiggling is a very tense/aggressive move for them


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## Isamurat

Bruxing is much more complicated than being simply "unhappy brux" or "happy brux". I've seen rats do it when content, excited, depressed, in pain, lonely etc. Whilst I don't have videos of every different type the body language tells you a lot. The positives will either be very relaxed pancake style or your bouncy energetic and forward style, the negative ones are generally a lot more hunched, fluffed up etc. To me it shows merely that the rats are feeling something strongly, add a boggle and its a more extreme feeling, much like quivering or even tail wagging.


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## rattie-love




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## darkiss4428

This is java he has companions and plenty of human time in the video he is on the dash of my car by the gauges. He is relaxed and bruxing and boggling, he has plenty of treats all over the dash, a cage that is secured in the back and the ac is on. Not missing any of those he also is VERY used to riding in the car and will in fact get in the car by himself, all I got to do is open the front door and walk out he meets me there. I don't feel like he has any reason to be upset or crying, he is healthy and plenty of stuff to do inside the cage and out. I agree with isamurat, they brux for different reasons and true his eyes are squinty but he also lets out a huge yawn stating that he is relaxed and tired. Shortly after the video he went right to sleep, nice and relaxed


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## moonkissed

Instead of comparing it to a baby crying, which is far from accurate IMO, I'd compare bruxing to a cat purr or dog wagging its tail. Yes many people think & assume these things always mean happy but in reality they can mean a whole world of different things.

Cats can and do purr when they are happy, feeling loved and relaxed. They also can purr in times of sickness or pain. Many cats purr through labor. I have worked a lot with sick, injured, and scared feral cats. I've seen purring that truly did not equal happiness lol

OMG do so many people think dogs only wag their tails to mean happy- sadly this often leads to bites  Depending on how they are wagging their tail it can mean fear, insecurity, etc. Dog body language is something I wish everyone with one would learn as you often see so many "happy" "cute" pictures where the dog is showing every stress signal possible sigh.

Emotions and signs are complicated and deep. Even with people- tears can mean sad or happy sometimes. Many people laugh when they are nervous or upset even!


I do get your point. Like with my comments above about dogs, so many pet owners truly suck at reading their pets body language and it is sad. I have seen pics and videos of people handling them too roughly and going "oh no he loves it!"

But you do not want to go one sided. Rats do also brux when they are happy or for a bunch of reasons including just being normal rats grinding their teeth.

We should encourage people to look at the whole picture.


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## Finnebon

Moonkissed had some great dog and cat comparisons there.

Just like to add that my rats tend to brux when settling down to sleep or snuggling with their family. No illness, no being "aggressively pet" or being forced to do anything. Squinting in pain is different from sleepy droopy, dozing off eyes too. I have had the misfortune of hearing rats pain brux. It sound similar, but is sharper, cracklier, sounds like they're chipping their teeth rather than just gently wearing them down. Rats HAVE to brux in order to wear their teeth down (and anyone that tells you you need to buy a chew toy for rats to wear their teeth is just trying to make money off you) and they generally do this when they're feeling snuggly and relaxed. Animals do grind their teeth from pain, but some also do it as a sign of being content and cozy. I remember my cockatiel who would gently grind her beak as she was falling asleep at night. I also remember when she was eggbound with a prolapsing cloaca and had to be rushed to emergency, and how the sound of her grinding beak was very different from her sleepy time grinding. My rats also brux (and groom) when they're thinking and trying to figure something out. Most fondly I remember my Bijou who was very curious and a huge explorer. Her greatest foe was the bedroom door and she knew it could be moved and then the rest of the house was available for exploring, but she couldn't figure out how to move it herself. Sometimes after digging through the carpet at the base of the door and then pulling her away, she would sit and stare and sometimes groom while bruxing, trying to figure out another way. And when I would lay on the floor and she would run up to me and snuggle her body against my face for kisses/pets/talking to, she would brux and snuggle in for a few minutes and give me kisses back. Bijou could not be contained. If she didn't feel like being snuggled, there was no way to "force" her. Once she was done with mommy-time, she would just get up and walk away and keep exploring.

Sorry but bruxing and most other body language and noises animals make are not always black and white.


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## Cyrix

I know rats need to grind their teeth to keep them filed down, but how often do they need to do that? I don't think I have ever heard one of our rats chatter when it wasn't obviously displeased in some way. Maybe it depends on their diet? Ours have always been on Oxbow. The vet has never indicated that their teeth are too long either.



> I have seen pics and videos of people handling them too roughly and going oh no he loves it!


This is a major problem. You have irresponsible idiots who post videos of themselves tormenting their rats and declaring that the chattering means that the rat just_ loooooovvvveeesss _it. It seems to be the overwhelming majority of people who actually post videos of the behavior. They want to believe that their rat is happy and loves being petted into the floor, so they take that as the gospel the first time they hear it and go around telling everyone. You have all of the rat fan sites that look like they were made in 1995 and talk about how bruxing means your rat is in heaven, and people go around parroting that like it's hard scientific data. It's like an epidemic.

Many of you have probably had rats for longer than I have, so maybe you've seen something I haven't, but I've never seen a rat chatter out of happiness. However, if you have that much experience with rats, you should know how to take care of them much better than the typical owner, who's going to have a much easier time making their rats unhappy than putting them in heaven. If it can indicate a wide range of emotions, fine, but I still argue that most of those emotions are some degree of negative, and it's irresponsible to tell new rat owners otherwise.



> ~
> 
> 
> 
> this is java he has companions and plenty of human time in the video he is on the dash of my car by the gauges


Your engine is so loud I can't even hear the chattering. Is the car actually as loud as it sounds in the video?


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## darkiss4428

No that's the air vent blowing into the mic due to camera angle. The car is actually really quite you cant hear it running much from the inside and his chatter is kinds low he doesn't make a lot of noise. You can barely hear him unless you are right in his face. Normally the only way we know he is doing it is when his eyes start boggling. He doesn't do it all the time but frequently enough for me to get the video


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## Akkia

I disagree strongly with the title of this post. Comparing it to a baby crying is completely the wrong thing to say. My rats have never bruxed when they were sick. I've only seen/heard them do it when they get their fresh foods in the morning/evening or when I get home from work and softly talk to them through their cage. I do have to agree though with Moonkissed and Finnebon in that it can mean an extreme of either happiness or distress. This could be in part that I have had rats throughout the majority of my life and just grew in knowledge of what make a rat happy/unhappy. 

I just think its a very unfair statement to some to tell them their rat is never happy when its bruxing, because it simply isn't true.


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## Jaguar

Indeed, I would often catch my rats bruxing and boggling while just hanging out having a cuddle in the hammock together. Bernard especially would always lay his head across Ben's back, stick his nose out between the cage bars, and boggle his little heart out. 

There are situations where bruxing/even boggling might not mean contentment. I agree with other posts above that people should be more aware of body language and not just think all bruxing = happy. Anthropomorphizing animal behaviors does nothing to help. It is complex, and we may not ever fully understand it, but to say bruxing is always due to negative emotions is just untrue.


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## Fu-Inle

I agree with the above post, bruxing is neither exclusively negative or positive. It depends on the situation and the rats body language. When I let my rats out in the morning they jump on my shoulder, bruxing in my ear and licking my neck and face. But they also brux when trying to figure out how climb up a certain object or how to get down from somewhere. Sometimes they just do it when their wondering around, sniffing the ground.


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## Sabatea

Neera doesn't really brux, especially not when I'm around (She's very handshy, so she's not interested in pets/interaction with me) but Dela has bruxed out of happiness before. She learned how to ask me to lift my arm up and make a bridge from my shoulder to the counter in my bathroom. I didn't touch her, but after a while of going up and down, she sat on my shoulder and just bruxed and boggled like crazy. She did the same thing after playing with me and my friends for a while. She climbed up on a shoulder and boggled her little heart out. She wasn't nervous, her head and her tail were high and she wasn't showing any signs of distress. After reading this place, I am wondering if when I was scritching behind her ears once and she bruxed, if that was actually happiness. However, I don't believe I've ever seen her brux out of distress or pain.


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## Isamurat

I’ve had rats for getting on for 30 years now, and had the advantage of growing up with them, so I have always found it fairly easy to tell whats going on in my rats heads. I can say that for your typical rat who has a generally happy life and well catered for they probably brux out of either contentment or happiness more than they brux out of frustration or unhappiness. This does depend on your quality of care to some extent, but I’ve kept rats in a range of different ways over the years. 

I think its irresponsible to tell a new owner its only one or the other, as opposed to explaining that theres a whole lot more to rats than just black and white. I’ve also found that many new owners will question why there rat is bruxing when it seems upset, even a relatively new owner can pick up basic signals of tension if they care to look and learn there rats.


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## Snowpea

Mine do it as a signal its time to go back to the cage for a poop  if I've had them on my shoulder a while,they make that sound,i put my arm on the poop deck,they hop off,do their important rat buisness then give me the puppy eyes when theyre ready to come back outnever thought of it as purring.fairly new to rat keeping but i get the impression they are trying so hard to comunicate with us they try everything till theyve got us trained and bruxing is one of the vocalizations human ears can pick up.That's the only time I hear it unless they're just relaxing grinding their teeth down,which is a slightly different sound.I'd been reading about that,that bruxing = purring and I think it can mean all sorts of things just like mentioned above,cats purr when they're injured too.I have a cat that barks and one that walks around hissing to herself(she's just Siamese,nothing wrong with her).animals are weird.they probably get so frustrated we can't understand them when they are speaking perfectly propper  rat.


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## moonkissed

Rats grind their teeth to keep them in check. It is likely that you haven't seen them do it because they are busy paying attention to you when you are around them. It also is sometimes very gentle and can be missed if you are not holding them or up close. Food and chews actually do not matter. Even if given nothing to chew on, rats teeth will not overgrow because of this natural grinding. When rats have overgrown teeth it is caused by malposition where the teeth do not align properly.



Cyrix said:


> Many of you have probably had rats for longer than I have, so maybe you've seen something I haven't, but I've never seen a rat chatter out of happiness. However, if you have that much experience with rats, you should know how to take care of them much better than the typical owner, who's going to have a much easier time making their rats unhappy than putting them in heaven. If it can indicate a wide range of emotions, fine, but I still argue that most of those emotions are some degree of negative, and it's irresponsible to tell new rat owners otherwise.


I have had rats for a long while and breed them. I would say I have a pretty good experience with them and with many different personalities. Right now currently I have 17 rats and they are all so different. I agree strongly with Isamurat that it can matter quite a bit the history and experiences the rat has come from.

I have a rescue girl with severe issues who wants nothing to do with people in any way shape or form, she has made huge improvements like taking food from me and actually leaving her cage during free range time which is like a miracle for her! And then I have rats that are well bred from great temperament lines who are just big suck babies. Rats who from the moment they are born have known nothing but love, had just oodles of hands on attention and have been exposed to tons of different sights, smells, sounds, environments, etc... (I like to say my babies are bomb proof lol) are probably going to be much more relaxed over all. 

I would say 90% of the time when I hear my rats brux it is from excitement. A super yummy food or a new experience. I wouldnt say I was an expert but as I said I have worked with all types of animals my entire life. I have also worked with shelter animals, rescues, feral. I would say I am fairly good at judging an animals body language. By far most of the time, if not always for most of them, I can tell what they are expressing to me. 

But I have seen the content lovey brux too. The best example is my boy Maly who is my biggest just dopey love baby. Whenever he sees people he just runs to your leg and begs to be picked up and snuggled. He is just pure love. I will go into my rat room and sit on the floor during their free time. He comes over by himself, sits on my lap and I gently pet his head- right behind the ears is the good spot! He slowly closes his eyes and falls asleep. if I stop he will open his eyes and look at me like hey dont stop! lol I am not holding him. He will sometimes brux during that.


But I do disagree that the majority of the time it is negative. You may not have had the opposite experience but your experience doesn't mean it is true for all rats. I would say the majority of the time that rats brux is most likely not contentment or anything like pain or fear but instead most likely excitement or over stimulation. A new experience even for us can be alittle like eek my nerves but overall it is usually a good happy emotion IMO. Like from meeting a new person to going on a roller coaster, it is a huge wide range going on there but is usually positive. If that makes sense.

We can all agree that there are bad owners and people who are stressing their rats out and thinking the rat loves it. But IMO it is far better to teach people the truth and have them try and learn to read their rat. Instead of saying bruxing is bad- it would be more beneficial to say holding down your rat, being too rough with your rat, forcing them to do something, etc... is not good. Don't be pushy or force them in a situation. And learn the signs and signals of a rat in distress and not good submissive behavior.

We all can tell the obvious- if they are screaming or squeaking at us. But freezing is also another sign that people often miss.


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## cookiebear<3

There are a lot of videos where a baby is bruxxing and the person is declaring that the stressed rattie is so happy and I just want to fall over. My Bentley, when he gets out to play, especially when he realizes I hid treats he does his bouncy run while bruxxing and he comes over to brux and boggle on me for a while- during which if I'm not paying absolute attention to him he'll run onto whatever I'm doing or on my face to get me to pet him. Of course when cookie was really old and sick she bruxxed all the way to the vet in the most unhappy way T-T it was awful.
But yeah, I agree it isn't an indicator of omg this rat is soo happy as I pin it down and torture it, but also doesn't mean it's upset as he steals my dinner. So essentially my post states the same thing as most others on this thread, but I just wanted to rant about how cute Bentley is when he plays. Jasper happy bruxxes intensely when I give them a new bed or blanket. He's soo lazy x)


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## Kirly

My rat bruxes while grooming and kissing me. No signs of distress, pain, or annoyance. Not everything is the same with every rat, just as how not everything is the same with every human.


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## Elise-R-R

My girls will bruxing and boggle when I stroke them. They usually stretch out, cuddle into me and have a nap while bruxing. No sign of stress etc. It's deffo because they're happy and relaxed! However my boy Wade seems to brux whenever he's trying to work something out. For example I have a barricade to block off a cupboard in my room and Wade will sometimes size it up while bruxing and then try out a new theory of how to get up it! 

I agree with moonkissed with the dog/cat theory. For example I have a dog aggressive dog, one time an off leash dog came running over to my dog and I asked the owner if they would call it away. The owner wouldn't as my dogs tail was wagging so that must mean he's friendly *eyeroll* however the tail wagging was stiff, not fluent like a happy tail wag. My dogs tail wag was a 'back off' tail wag. He was nervous of the other dog and was warning it away. This is an example of how people always confuse animal body language! 

However I thought it was well know that rats also brux when they're nervous as well as happy? Before I got my rats and I was doing research multiple sources said how rats brux when they feel nervous however it sounds more 'sharp' than happy bruxing.


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## Shadow <3

I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but this is an old post from 2015.


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## Elise-R-R

Shadow I saw it was from 2015 and thought 'Eh I'll comment, 2015 was only 5 months ago the person may still be looking at the thread' XD I only just remembered as I read your post that it's now 2017 XD 

Even though it's old it's still good to debate on!!


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## Rattielover965

Elise-R-R said:


> I saw it was from 2015 and thought 'Eh I'll comment, 2015 was only 5 months ago


Only five months? Time flies


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## Fu-Inle

What planet are you on? Its 2017. 2015 was over a year ago.


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## Elise-R-R

Lol I'm fully aware of that. If you read my post you'd realise I'd commented under that 'then I realised it's 2017'.


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## Fu-Inle

Oh i didn't see that lol


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## expedition rattie

My rats often brux after having their favorite treats, such as yogurt drops, blueberries, and little rat biscuits.


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## Rattzie

Bruxing can mean many things, I think everyone here has a very fair point! I just want to say one thing tho, I have never seen my rats brux out of fear or distress, (and I should know my own rats) one of my rats, mostly a Dubs, will (while I'm sitting on my bed) hop right onto my shoulder and start bruxing and sniffing my face, he'll even start grooming my face!! It's the sweetest thing ever!! And it makes me so happy because its very random XDD

But I'll definitely make sure to double check whether they are upset or not!!

Ps. No one likes a negative attitude, please try to be a bit nicer about all this. Some people just don't understand, doesn't mean you should tell at them and slap them in the face with your words 💛💛💛


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## Enne

Please don't necropost like the people above you also did.


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## Rattzie

Enne said:


> Please don't necropost like the people above you also did.


Oh sorry, my bad TvT


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## matheewee

edit: I realised after posting the reply that this thread is VERY old and I wanna apologise for that 😞 didn't mean to reply to a crazy old thread, it was near the top when scrolling and I didn't think to check the date (and I don't know how to delete replies)


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## RattyRose

Finnebon said:


> Moonkissed had some great dog and cat comparisons there.
> 
> Just like to add that my rats tend to brux when settling down to sleep or snuggling with their family. No illness, no being "aggressively pet" or being forced to do anything. Squinting in pain is different from sleepy droopy, dozing off eyes too. I have had the misfortune of hearing rats pain brux. It sound similar, but is sharper, cracklier, sounds like they're chipping their teeth rather than just gently wearing them down. Rats HAVE to brux in order to wear their teeth down (and anyone that tells you you need to buy a chew toy for rats to wear their teeth is just trying to make money off you) and they generally do this when they're feeling snuggly and relaxed. Animals do grind their teeth from pain, but some also do it as a sign of being content and cozy. I remember my cockatiel who would gently grind her beak as she was falling asleep at night. I also remember when she was eggbound with a prolapsing cloaca and had to be rushed to emergency, and how the sound of her grinding beak was very different from her sleepytime grinding. My rats also brux (and groom) when they're thinking and trying to figure something out. Most fondly I remember my Bijou who was very curious and a huge explorer. Her greatest foe was the bedroom door and she knew it could be moved and then the rest of the house was available for exploring, but she couldn't figure out how to move it herself. Sometimes after digging through the carpet at the base of the door and then pulling her away, she would sit and stare and somtimes groom while bruxing, trying to figure out another way. And when I would lay on the floor and she would run up to me and snuggle her body against my face for kisses/pets/talking to, she would brux and snuggle in for a few minutes and give me kisses back. Bijou could not be contained. If she didn't feel like being snuggled, there was no way to "force" her. Once she was done with mommy-time, she would just get up and walk away and keep exploring.
> 
> Sorry but bruxing and most other body language and noises animals make are not always black and white.


This comment made me so happy, I just love the love between you & Bijou!


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