# Rat Hiccups?



## Skaila

Not sure what board to post this, but can rats get hiccups?
I picked my girl up to put her on my shoulder and she started chirping and twitching quickly with the approximate rhythm of a human heartbeat (even with the ups and downs!) but it slowed and finally went away. it was a very soft chirp but her entire body pulsed so I think I might have scared her into getting the hiccups. 
Is this possible?


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## LightningWolf

Yep, rats get hiccups. they tend to start hiccuping if they get spook or boggling too much.


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## Rat Daddy

I've always suspected that some rats use this hiccuping to raise their body temperature from rest mode to play mode, like shivering. Mine does it whenever she gets woken up and taken out of her cage... First she hiccups for a little while, then she kicks it into gear. I've seen similar behavior in a bat, that needed to bring up its sleeping temperature before it could fly. (coolest warmup ever) Bats reduce their body temperatures to save energy when they sleep, I can't say why some rat's might not do the same... I haven't seen it documented either way, but it looks very similar.


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## Skaila

You know, now that you mention that, she got the hiccups right after I woke her up to put her on my shoulder! So maybe she was just shivery and spooked at the same time. XD Either way, it was adorable.
I read elsewhere that if there's a sound to be worried about a URI but she was right against my ear and it was just a soft chirp, so I think she's fine.


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## Rat Daddy

Long ago, the first time I heard and saw it I worried too... but my rat's been doing it every time she wakes up for all her life, and as I watched a bat do exactly the same thing when it woke up as part of it's warm up routine... (first it hiccuped/twitched, then it actually vibrated, then it's ears started moving like raidar antenae, then it opened it's eyes, then I netted it and ushered it out my bedroom window in a long handled fish net where it flicked open it's wings and flew away) and bats and rats are distant cousins... I just assumed it was normal... but all rats don't seem to do it. Some just seem to wake up and kick it into high gear without the stretch, yawn and hiccup procedure.


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## Houdini

My girl Houdini gets hiccups when she's woken up from a deep sleep, Majik doesn't seem to get them as often. It's just one of those things, I guess. I know I had a panic attack the first time she did it!


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## Maiden

My boys just seem to spontaneously start hiccuping they look so cute. At first I was worried, I didn't know what it was- oh, one of my boys just started hiccuping as I am typing this xD

My boy's hiccups are generally silent though I have not had one do it next to my ear. I do know that when my baby was just hiccuping he was making a little squeak with each hiccup and he is currently being treated for a URI. I could hear him squeaking from my lap so I guess it depends on how loud the squeak is.


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