# Blind rats?



## Daun (Feb 9, 2016)

In the recent group of rats I obtained, two are fully blind. They are both does from the same litter so I have them in an enclosure together, away from the rats who have sight. I want to make sure they are able to get enough food and water, and feel comfortable in an enclosure that isn't moved around often. Is this advisable?


Also, should I keep things out of their enclosure that they could climb and fall from? How much does loss of sight affect rats? Will they lead a happy life? They're incredibly wild and won't let me touch them, but I'd been trying to give them treats out of my hand to get them to understand I'm not here to hurt them.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

From the pic, I can't see their eyes very well. Were their eyes surgically removed? Or are they just closing their eyelids on the pic? Where did you get them from?


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## Daun (Feb 9, 2016)

Gribouilli said:


> From the pic, I can't see their eyes very well. Were their eyes surgically removed? Or are they just closing their eyelids on the pic? Where did you get them from?


They don't have eyes at all, they were eaten out by cagemates. The eyelids have sealed over, they cannot see anything. I obtained them and 9 other rats of various size and sex from a woman on CL. She handed them to me in a 5 gallon tank, one of the does had a litter the next morning.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Oh my! This is just horrible. Thanks for helping them!No wonder they are so scared if some rats ate their eyes.

I know that blind cats and blind dogs have good lives as I know people who have rescued them. However, more often than not they have friends who can see and it is helping them a lot. I have no experience with blind rats though. My guess is that the blindness is not more of an issue for a rat than for a dog or cat, probably much less so since they are kept inside.

I believe their blindness is not the worse thing here. The worse thing is their trauma of being attacked and the abuse they were subjected to by their previous handler. Sorry, I'm not of much help here.


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## Daun (Feb 9, 2016)

Gribouilli said:


> Oh my! This is just horrible. Thanks for helping them!No wonder they are so scared if some rats ate their eyes. I know that blind cats and blind dogs have good lives as I know people who have rescued them. However, more often than not they have friends who can see and it is helping them a lot. I have no experience with blind rats though. My guess is that the blindness is not more of an issue for a rat than for a dog or cat, probably much less so since they are kept inside.I believe their blindness is not the worse thing here. The worse thing is their trauma of being attacked and the abuse they were subjected to by their previous handler. Sorry, I'm not of much help here.


It is. I was so disgusted with the woman that I simply grabbed and left (it was a surrender to my rescue, I would not pay for rats like this), and didn't check them out till I got home. I was completely horrified at the thought that they either didn't have enough food or enough space, or both, to the point where they did that to each other.  

Ive been watching them pretty closely, and they're running along the length of their enclosure, they wrestle/play (I think - I've never had rats before), and seem to get on just fine. I'm just not sure if it's a good idea to put them with other rats who can see, in fear of them being little bullies.

Also, no, you are stil being helpful! I've never owned rats before so any information is great. I have done quite a bit of research, but everything's a learning process.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

There is a hierarchy of dominance among a mischief of rats. More often than not, the hierarchy is decided without major aggression. Some rats bully other rats but it is quite rare except among hormonal males. The fact that they are blind will most likely make them submissive- that is all. It could go both ways. I hope someone with blind rats will see your post and enlighten us on how rats act toward blind rats. I'm curious to know.


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## Daun (Feb 9, 2016)

Gribouilli said:


> There is a hierarchy of dominance among a mischief of rats. More often than not, the hierarchy is decided without major aggression. Some rats bully other rats but it is quite rare except among hormonal males. The fact that they are blind will most likely make them submissive- that is all. It could go both ways. I hope someone with blind rats will see your post and enlighten us on how rats act toward blind rats. I'm curious to know.


I assumed they'd be pretty submissive, but I've dealt with blind animals before that were even _bigger_ than their cagemates and still got bullied! Those were salamanders, but still. I just want to make sure they're happy and healthy. I doubt I'll adopt them out or use them for projects, so if they can comfortably live with my other holdbacks that'd be great.

Even though you weren't really able to answer my question, still, thank you for the information! I really appreciate it.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Another advantage if they could be safely housed with one or more other rats is that if those other rats are trusting you, the blind and scared rats will also start trusting you. Are the other rats friendly or are they scared and wild too?


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## Daun (Feb 9, 2016)

Gribouilli said:


> Another advantage if they could be safely housed with one or more other rats is that if those other rats are trusting you, the blind and scared rats will also start trusting you. Are the other rats friendly or are they scared and wild too?


Unfortunately all of them are really wild. They were bought and bred together for prey items, but the woman's son had moved out, and she had no idea what to do with them. There's two out of all of them that will let me touch them, both bucks. One likes to nibble on my fingertips and the other will let me pet his head and ears. Picking anyone up is a nightmare.

I had to use a large fishnet to catch the blind rats. I doubt they've _ever_ been handled.


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

First of all, thank goodness you stepped in. I don't know how you can do that to an animal and not care.

As for the blindness, I agree that having friends would make it easier to get them to work with you, but the seeing rats would have to know and trust you. I work with rescue, and blind or not, one of the key elements in my rehab was my late boy, Remus. Super easy going and loved to hang out, which made it easier for the new fosters to know me.

Rats also have notoriously awful sight. (Check the image at the bottom.) Awful depth perception, awful color detection, and albinistic rats might as well be blind. It's more of a "is there something there" over a "let me see what it is," so smell and hearing take precedence. Make sure that you wear the same Cologne/perfume/deodorant each time, if at all. (Please wear deodorant.) Let them know you are there before touching them or handing out treats. (You want them to know you and then know the food.) Speak in the same tones when you approach them, and while you should be okay hanging hammocks, align them so that if someone steps off a ledge, they just tumble gently into another hammock. The most important thing, however, is that once you set up the cage, keep anything solid (hammocks/houses/bowls) exactly the same. Take a picture if you need to. They'll map out the space in their minds, so if you move a hammock they usually use to get down from, there's a chance they'll fall. And when they are first in their new cage, make sure to be prepared to catch someone.


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## ElectricPaladin (Jan 18, 2016)

RatAtat2693 said:


> First of all, thank goodness you stepped in. I don't know how you can do that to an animal and not care.
> 
> As for the blindness, I agree that having friends would make it easier to get them to work with you, but the seeing rats would have to know and trust you. I work with rescue, and blind or not, one of the key elements in my rehab was my late boy, Remus. Super easy going and loved to hang out, which made it easier for the new fosters to know me.
> 
> Rats also have notoriously awful sight. (Check the image at the bottom.) Awful depth perception, awful color detection, and albinistic rats might as well be blind. It's more of a "is there something there" over a "let me see what it is," so smell and hearing take precedence. Make sure that you wear the same Cologne/perfume/deodorant each time, if at all. (Please wear deodorant.) Let them know you are there before touching them or handing out treats. (You want them to know you and then know the food.) Speak in the same tones when you approach them, and while you should be okay hanging hammocks, align them so that if someone steps off a ledge, they just tumble gently into another hammock. The most important thing, however, is that once you set up the cage, keep anything solid (hammocks/houses/bowls) exactly the same. Take a picture if you need to. They'll map out the space in their minds, so if you move a hammock they usually use to get down from, there's a chance they'll fall. And when they are first in their new cage, make sure to be prepared to catch someone.


I know I'm potentially derailing the thread, but... does this mean that I should treat our pink-eyed rat, Mel, as though she were basically blind?


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## Fraido (Oct 1, 2014)

I have a small boy who also does not have eyes, he does perfectly fine in my double critter nation with my 10 other boys. Mind you, I don't clutter my cage with a lot of toys and stuff; just a couple places for them to curl up in, a couple hanging toys and their full sized cat litter box. They get most of their enrichment outside of the cage, as that's where they spend a large portion of their time.

He navigates it extremely well, pretty much as well as the other boys. He can even get around my room very well, he knows where to find anything. None of my boys beat him up or horde the food from him, I see him popcorning around and play-wrestling with the other boys all the time.

I think it has a lot to do with your individual rats, before I had him he was with in a smaller cage with just one other boy who would beat him up pretty good, but with my many boys he has no problems. If there are no problems with them and the other rats, I don't see why they wouldn't do just fine in the big cage that gets changed around, they're pretty remarkable.


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## Fraido (Oct 1, 2014)

ElectricPaladin said:


> RatAtat2693 said:
> 
> 
> > First of all, thank goodness you stepped in. I don't know how you can do that to an animal and not care.
> ...


I have a couple PEWs, and in my experience they don't need any different care than my other rats.


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## RatAtat2693 (Jan 13, 2016)

Hahaha. Nah. I was just emphasizing how aweful their sight is. Though, my pink eyed cream puff has been getting worse in his old age and has resorted to hiding in his turtle anytime the lights are on.


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## Bailey (Feb 16, 2016)

I don't have blind rats but I have blind birds and have had blind hamsters too. Animals adapt wonderfully to their handicaps as long as you give them the tools to do so. Try to give the rats plenty of ramps and such to use because they likely won't feel comfortably scaling the cage bars the way "normal" rats would. They will figure out their cage layout with a little time and will navigate just fine. I always try not to rearrange the environment of blind animals too much or too often, and I always keep necessities in the same general area (food/water/treat bowl). Part of their fear is that they do not know you are there or how close you are to them so they will startle when you touch them. You might pair a cue word with your physical touch so they know when you're going to handle them; for example, birds generally are commanded "step up" when we want them to step onto our hand or finger and I use that as my cue word with my blind birds, otherwise they hiss and bite at me when I try to handle them.


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