# Rat acting like he's seeing ghosts?



## Modernstar (Jan 30, 2016)

Milky, my heart rat, is acting really strange. It happens about once a week, so I thought it was nothing to worry about but it's always really disconcerting. 

He's usually very happy, curious, energetic, and runs right up to you for treats and cuddles, but once a week he'll act like, no lie, he's seen a ghost. For no reason whatsoever. 

Basically, he'll hide in the corner of a tiny space and stare with HUGE eyes into nothingness. You can nudge him, scoot him around, dangle his favorite foods in front of his face, even put them in his mouth. Nothing. his cagemates will come up and nudge him as if they wanna play but he acts like they're not even there. 

After a very worrisome playtime, I put him back in his cage and he froze and stared at a wall with those giant eyes. He'll usually go straight to the food/water but he didn't move for, I'm not kidding, 5 straight minutes.

He's fine 6/7 days of the week. No signs of illness, his cagemates are fine, etc.

Is this normal? does he just have a strange personality? is something scaring him and only him that I'm not aware of???


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## keykaye (Jun 11, 2015)

i've never heard of this happening, it is true that animals have a higher sence of "paranormal" then people do, but you never know. I do hope that you find some answers soon, its so worrying to see your furrbabies scared.


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

My rats did this too, one night. Its like they where hypnotised. The only reasonable cause I could put it down to is that they could hear or smell something unusual or threatening. They seemed fixated on the window, which was open, I checked it and there was nothing out of the ordinary but there was a storm approaching, perhaps they could sense it. Or maybe they could smell the smoke from the neighbours fireplace. Who knows.


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## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

Animals can be strange like that. Since its only once a week, its probably nothing. I once had a dog that would randomly stare at a hook (for a hanging plant) on the ceiling for hours and growl at it and then after about 20 minutes, get sick of it and walk away. She'd do it once in a while and it always startled me at how suddenly and randomly she would start doing it. 

Like she'd be sleeping across the house and then pop up like she was startled awake and then run to the hook to growl at it. 

She lived a long healthy life. Your rat is probably just as weird as my dog was.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

A rat sense of smells and hearing are much more developed than ours. They can hear much higher frequencies than we do, and their sense of smells is hundreds of times better than ours. Rats can hear the electricity buzzing though cables and sense the electrimagnetic waves of your wireless wifi connection. Whatever it was, it was something that we, humans, cannot hear or smell- and by that I don't mean a ghost


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

Is he responsive at all? What happens when you touch him? Does he make squeaks or random sounds when he does? Does he seems confused or disoriented afterwards? Is it always at the same time?

My main concern is that he might be having seizures. There are different types of seizures, like the Grand Mals, which are violent thrashing and often what people think of when you say seizure. But there's also a seizure that just leaves the person or animal staring into space.


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

Here's a quick chart. The last thing wouldn't let me post the image.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/mobileart.asp?articlekey=43369&page=1


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## Modernstar (Jan 30, 2016)

RatAtat2693 said:


> Is he responsive at all? What happens when you touch him? Does he make squeaks or random sounds when he does? Does he seems confused or disoriented afterwards? Is it always at the same time?
> 
> My main concern is that he might be having seizures. There are different types of seizures, like the Grand Mals, which are violent thrashing and often what people think of when you say seizure. But there's also a seizure that just leaves the person or animal staring into space.


He's responsive in the sense that I can tell he's "all there", if that makes sense, he's just extremely focused and looks really scared/freaked out. He doesn't make any noises at all, just stares with big eyes. Afterwards he's just kind of quiet - I tend to leave him alone to sort it out overnight and once I come back in to check on him he's back to being himself. He seems more scared than confused... 

That's a good theory though, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for any sort of behavior that might indicate a health problem rather than a behavioral anomaly.


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

Modernstar said:


> He's responsive in the sense that I can tell he's "all there", if that makes sense, he's just extremely focused and looks really scared/freaked out. He doesn't make any noises at all, just stares with big eyes...


Okay - I get that. A friend of mine had epilepsy, and you could tell when he was going to have a fit. We'd try to get him to somewhere safe (and soft) beforehand.

Then it very well could be something that we just can't see or hear. Somebody's electronics making an odd noise, etc. A squirrel or raccoon living in the wall. I always like to go for the medical causes first, especially when there's no other response from cage mates.


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## doctorowl (Sep 2, 2015)

Are you sure he's not just randomly terrified? One of my girls will freeze like that for up to 15 minutes if the cat walks down the hallway and she catches a glimpse of her. My very first rat I ever owned was also TERRIFIED of literally EVERYTHING, if you so much as breathed too loud he would freeze for a half hour. Maybe he's smelling something. Or maybe another rat read him a scary story


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## rlstine (Mar 2, 2016)

Modernstar said:


> He's responsive in the sense that I can tell he's "all there", if that makes sense, he's just extremely focused and looks really scared/freaked out. He doesn't make any noises at all, just stares with big eyes. Afterwards he's just kind of quiet - I tend to leave him alone to sort it out overnight and once I come back in to check on him he's back to being himself. He seems more scared than confused...
> 
> That's a good theory though, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for any sort of behavior that might indicate a health problem rather than a behavioral anomaly.


My dog had seizures like that and one of the telltale signs is urination. I know that rats are basically incontinent, but see if he maybe takes a bigger pee than normal during these times when he's very still, staring off into space.


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

rlstine said:


> Modernstar said:
> 
> 
> > He's responsive in the sense that I can tell he's "all there", if that makes sense, he's just extremely focused and looks really scared/freaked out. He doesn't make any noises at all, just stares with big eyes. Afterwards he's just kind of quiet - I tend to leave him alone to sort it out overnight and once I come back in to check on him he's back to being himself. He seems more scared than confused...
> ...


In rats, they'll also most likely defecate and sit/lay in their urine during a seizure. Rome would wake up from his seizure (Grand Mal) and just kind of shake it off.


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## Lovesannie (6 mo ago)

Modernstar said:


> Milky, my heart rat, is acting really strange. It happens about once a week, so I thought it was nothing to worry about but it's always really disconcerting.
> 
> He's usually very happy, curious, energetic, and runs right up to you for treats and cuddles, but once a week he'll act like, no lie, he's seen a ghost. For no reason whatsoever.
> 
> ...


I know this thread is old, but did you ever figure it out? My rat has been doing this and I'm confused as to why she would do it. Exact same thing you're describing. I'm thinking she might smell cat on me because she gets like this after I've played with my friends' cats. I'm just concerned cuz it usually takes her a few hours to sort herself out


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## Nynie7 (May 18, 2021)

Really quite sure that they are in pain somewhere. My girls do this when they have an inner ear infection, or very serious tummy aches. It's basically a fear reaction. They are in pain so they are waaaay more careful about being somewhere and therefore they are terrified. I am betting one of these rats has an inner ear infection or something else. My girl sort of acts as if something is super irritating and then run off and then stare into nothingness for a while as if something was super scary. 

The other option is indeed smells. Some strong smells like flowers, other animals etc can freak a rat out as well.

Good luck!


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