# Woke up to rat screaming.



## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

My girls like to wrestle and sometimes Mocha likes to get rough because she's the alpha, but there's never been any blood or bites or injuries otherwise, so based on the general rule of rats I'm assuming "no foul". 

But this morning around 6 AM I woke up to LouLou seriously shrieking. I sat up fast and called them to see if they'd come to the bars, but they didn't so I jumped out of bed and opened up the cage doors. Mocha was holding LouLou down like I expected to see, but when I opened the doors they both came over and LouLou seemed fine.

I heard this kind of scream one other time, when LouLou tried to take food from Mocha's hands and stash it (she's weird about that, even though there's plenty of food ALWAYS freely available for both of them to graze from). Mocha gets irritated when LouLou grabs her food and turns her over for it to take it back, and LouLou gets VERY upset about being flipped when it comes to food. So I assume maybe that's what happened.

Neither of them ever come up bloody or hurt...but you can imagine it's just VERY disconcerting and makes me panic when I wake up to LouLou shrieking like she's being mauled or something, because it's THAT loud. 

I just don't know. I guess she just gets really loud when she's upset. Though afterward they're cuddling in the hammock together. 

Do your guys' rats ever scream at each other loud like that? Should I just leave it alone since they've not drawn any blood, or intervene when it happens?


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## Jenzie (Dec 26, 2012)

Scary! The only time I've heard a rat scream was once Ratigan somehow managed to get one finger stuck between two panels in a travel cage while he was climbing it. Poor little guy, absolutely terrified me, but luckily he was fine once I got him loose. Didn't even bleed! It's a really scary sound to hear though.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

My baby, Ashe, screams like a banshee when she's squabbling with the other gals. It freaks my fiance out, especially when we wake up at night to it, but as I've pointed out to him before, she does it all the time and none of our rats have ever put even a scratch on each other. They tumble around a big, but most of the time they're cuddling and grooming each other. 
Ashe is just a screamer, though. She used to scream when we'd put her in the cage at night so we slept with the little booger in our bed until we figured out she was playing us. She went through a phase for two days where she screamed at us when we tried to pick her up, but then when we weren't looking she'd climb up onto us. After two days she was over it and now doesn't make a peep. With her sisters, she goes after them and jumps on them and they turn around and pin her down and she screams like she's being killed, even though they never use teeth.
I think some rats are just screamers. If they've never hurt each other and get along otherwise, I don't think you have anything to worry about at all.


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

Definitely is a terrifying sound, both to get jolted out of sleep from or otherwise. :c Especially when it's still pretty dark in the room and I was afraid to death I would turn on the lights and see something unexpected that no rattie parent ever wants to see between the beloved babes. I worry about them, but no one's been hurt so I'm not sure what to think.

And poor Ratigan! D: I'm glad his little toes were all right, though, and that he got loose okay! My girls have come pretty close to getting their toes/tails caught in the cage doors, but so far it hasn't happened (thank goodness).


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## PeachPeach (Jun 22, 2012)

No screamers here! Annoyed squeaks, but that's it


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

Rumy91989 said:


> My baby, Ashe, screams like a banshee when she's squabbling with the other gals. It freaks my fiance out, especially when we wake up at night to it, but as I've pointed out to him before, she does it all the time and none of our rats have ever put even a scratch on each other. They tumble around a big, but most of the time they're cuddling and grooming each other.
> Ashe is just a screamer, though. She used to scream when we'd put her in the cage at night so we slept with the little booger in our bed until we figured out she was playing us. She went through a phase for two days where she screamed at us when we tried to pick her up, but then when we weren't looking she'd climb up onto us. After two days she was over it and now doesn't make a peep. With her sisters, she goes after them and jumps on them and they turn around and pin her down and she screams like she's being killed, even though they never use teeth.
> I think some rats are just screamers. If they've never hurt each other and get along otherwise, I don't think you have anything to worry about at all.


Thanks a bunch for the advice.
I've heard of rats being squeakers during playtime, but I'd never heard of rats being such big screamers about it. It's nice though to know I'm not the only one with a rat that shrieks like that and comes up unharmed. Thanks again!


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

One of mine likes to squeak and sometimes it scares me how high pitched it gets. I just had to get up last night because I was worried. Luckily nothing was wrong, haha. It'll be fine as long as you don't see any wounds.


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

Jackie said:


> One of mine likes to squeak and sometimes it scares me how high pitched it gets. I just had to get up last night because I was worried. Luckily nothing was wrong, haha. It'll be fine as long as you don't see any wounds.


I guess our rats just like being extra vocal then, haha. c: They've always seemed to enjoy each other's company, so I s'pose they're all right even if it sounds like they're not sometimes. Thanks for visiting & commenting!


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Only time I've had screams is when Storm ripped parts of Soda and Charles's ears off (not noticeable luckily, as in Very small pieces) due to his thyroid issue. Luckily after getting on a regular Iodine diet he stopped doing it.

Still not every scream means something is bad. Still if it worries you keep an eye on them.


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## mistymornings18 (Aug 13, 2012)

We've got two males we call monsters lol. They scream at each other whilst they chase one another through the cage lmao. It's hilarious now that we're used it but at first I'd freak and run to the cage. Now it's like a normal part of the day And if it doesn't happen then I worry. 


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## Stubbylove (Sep 5, 2012)

Sometimes in the middle of the night I'm woken by rattie screams too!! I have four boys and they all get along fine. But I guess sometimes play time gets a little rough or something cuz ill wake up to one of them really screaming. It's pitch black in my room so I rush turn the lights on and check them out. And all I see is all four of them looking up at me like ".....we didn't do anything!" Lol. I am not even sure I know which one is screaming how innocent they all look once I get the lights on!! Lol. And I even check everyone over for bloody bites or missing toes and everyone is fine. It's the weirdest thing!! I have no idea what's going on in that cage in the middle of the night. Lol. But during the day it never happens. It's so strange. Lol. 


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## JLSaufl (Jan 20, 2013)

My three boys spend their lives screaming at each other. I think they're just babies. Linus especially is a screamer. One would think someone is ripping out his nails, here, come to find out he's being pushed away from the only *good* water bottle.


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## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

The only time I've ever heard a true blood-curdling scream was once at 4am when my poor Dione had some freak accident and sliced a perfect ring around the tip of her tail. We never worked out what caused it, I suspected the clip on a new bottle so we got rid of that, it thankfully never happened again. She wound up losing the tip. Any other shrieks and squeals I hear are always just rough play fighting, sometimes my girl November is a bit too rough and nips the others which makes them squeal a bit but no real harm is ever done. It can still be upsetting to hear though.


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## Flora (Aug 30, 2012)

Mine only scream when its bath time :-/


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## preciouscreature (Feb 13, 2013)

YES! Used to have two females who would run around and scream at each other! It was scary when it caught you off-guard, though hilarious afterwards!


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## Soarel (Jan 1, 2013)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-arhKPfDrc 

This is what a screaming rat sounds like. 

I've heard mine scream, but it was back when the little guy got his tail stuck in the cage door.


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## OutOfHowMany (Dec 24, 2012)

Gizka is a big baby and shrieks like that, even when she's winning wrestling.


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## Smilebud (Jul 31, 2012)

William screams the second he touches water. 
Other than that, he only squeaks and squeals when DJ bullies him.


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