Hi everyone...

I am coming to you because I am slightly puzzled by one of my rats behaviour and I am hoping some of the rat owners out there might have some thoughts.

Basically, Indie (a rat I took on as a foster in June) has been a bit of a biter & I did actually ask for advice about this at one point but it calmed down and all became merry in the Jellybean household.
However, this evening something must have spooked her because one minute they were playing and the next she shot across the room like she had a firework up her behind and spent the next hour refusing to come out from behind the cage. She's refusing treats and when I had to lift her back into the cage she squealed like I was going to eat her and would have had my fingers off if I wasn't quite so switched on about the ear dance she does right before she goes in for the kill! Even now she's in the cage looking like she's on red alert for some sort of invasion...!!! I'm a bit baffled as to the sudden change in her. I am wondering if it's the baby boy rats that have unsettled her - she has been very taken with them and kept trying to get up to their cage so I took them away to another room.

Now, what I am wondering is whether their disappearence might have something to do with her being so bonkers. Her original bout of biting (she was trying to savage hands at every opportunity and also started bullying Fluffy rat for a while)...anyhow, that last period of bad behaviour from her started after Banoffee rat died. They'd only been sharing a cage for a short time so I didn't connect the two. Now the baby boys have gone to another room...could the vanishings be the cause of her becoming super skitty??? Literally, she's terrified of her own shadow all of a sudden...

Any ideas would be enormously appreciated. She's not being a nuisance or anything, I'm just concerned that she's sat there, terrified of whatever it is she thinks is going to happen all of a sudden, there's no way that's a good state of mind for her - poor wee thing

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Proud mum to Fluffy,Indie, Minnie, Loki, Tyr, Jinx & Onyx .......RIP Honey Cookie and Banoffee

Being skitty and ear fluttering is a sign of being in heat...does she just pause, ears flutter, then she bounds around?

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http://kaedianmori.tumblr.com/ <--- NSFW





RIP - Marsh, Hugo, Mako, Rufus, Seamus, Lavender, BigBoy, Tetley and Fitch <3

I dont know anything about rats but I am just wondering if she could of hurt herself. trapped a nerve in her back or neck etc ???

Does she do this?

&#x202a;Female rat in heat&#x202c;&rlm; - YouTube

But like, ping forward a few leaps too? Try tapping your fingers down her lower back to see if she does it.

ETA: here's a better example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpdQmFuinTU&NR=1

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http://kaedianmori.tumblr.com/ <--- NSFW





RIP - Marsh, Hugo, Mako, Rufus, Seamus, Lavender, BigBoy, Tetley and Fitch <3

I thought about being on heat one of mine gets really odd though it's quite funny to watch her bound around the cage if you touch her bum lol

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Owner to-
lots of rodents
2 monster dogs
1 slinky cat

She's could be in heat I guess but she's not vibrating...the ear dance I mentioned isn't the vibrating ears it's this thing she does where she'll flatten them then start perking one up at a time - it's quite cute really.

Also, this wasn't her usual brand of skitty, this was full on terrified. She wasn't even out playing after she had a her mad dash behind the cage. She literally just sat there & wouldn't take treats or anything, totally non responsive to the fact I was waving anything at her actually, it's strange & not at all like her. Even when she's going through one of her I don't want to be picked up and I will bite you if you come anywhere near me phases (sometimes she's sweet as a pie and you can pick her up no bother & play with her & she's lovely - I'm starting to wonder if she's got a split personality) you can usually tempt her with some food when she wedges herself behind or under things... She's a very odd rat sometimes, bless her.

Someone suggested to me - last time she was getting aggressive, (although that time it was aimed at the other rats, not so much at me) that she might have had a sort of phantom pregnancy and had a bit of a mad nesting urge. With the boys in the house - is there a possibility she might be having a similar experience, do you think?

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Proud mum to Fluffy,Indie, Minnie, Loki, Tyr, Jinx & Onyx .......RIP Honey Cookie and Banoffee