{"id":3241,"date":"2023-03-27T14:59:10","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T19:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/?p=3241"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:26:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T20:26:51","slug":"does-a-pet-rats-personality-change-over-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/does-a-pet-rats-personality-change-over-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Does A Pet Rat\u2019s Personality Change Over Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yes, pet rats can change personality over time. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Imagine that you have just brought home two adorable rats. They are both fuzzy balls of energy, popcorning around their cage. Scratch that, they\u2019re wide-eyed and startle at the slightest noise or movement and carefully watch you while hiding in their igloo. Or \u2026 maybe one is super friendly and has already made you their best friend, while the other one is hoping to have a long-distance relationship with you \u2014 where you keep your distance.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t actually matter what your rats\u2019 personalities are like at the moment, because who they are today isn\u2019t necessarily who they will be tomorrow. That\u2019s because rat personalities can and do change over time.<\/p>\n

Reasons For Personality Changes<\/h3>\n

In my experience, age, health issues, hormones, and life experiences probably have the largest impact on humans and animals alike when it comes to our moods and how we act. I think it\u2019s impossible to go through life without experiencing a shift in who we are, and rats are no different.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t mean that every rat will go through a complete metamorphosis, or that specific personality traits aren\u2019t ingrained in your rat \u2014 never to change. But it\u2019s completely natural to observe small or significant changes over their lifetime. Only time will reveal the level of those changes.<\/p>\n

Age And Rat Personality Changes<\/h3>\n
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A rat’s personality changes as they physically change. Cassidy at 7.5 weeks, 8 months, and 2 years and 8 months. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think it\u2019s unavoidable for a rat\u2019s personality to change as they age. Young, hyper rats \u2014 which are always on the go, go, go \u2014 undoubtedly slow down and become lazy lumps (especially males) at some point.<\/p>\n

To quote myself from my past article Rat Life Lessons From Older Rats<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve observed that rats have very distinct stages they go through during their short two to three years of life. What your rats are like when you first bring them home inevitably evolves over time due to physical and\/or personality changes that are a part of aging.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a year since I wrote that article, which was about my senior boys giving life \u201cadvice\u201d to my then-teenager boys. All three of those seniors have now sadly moved on to the Rainbow Bridge. Unsurprisingly, the \u201cteenagers\u201d are currently slowing down as they enter a new phase of their life. They aren\u2019t in the senior stage just yet. In the last couple of months, I\u2019ve noticed how much more these boys like to sleep now, even when I bring them out of their cage.<\/p>\n

When rats are young it feels like they will always have endless energy and curiosity, but every rat eventually finds the love of napping \u2026 all \u2026 day \u2026 long.<\/p>\n

Health Issues And Rat Personality Changes<\/h3>\n
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Any sudden personality change warrants a visit to the veterinarian. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Health issues often go hand in hand with aging, but not always. Either way, illness, pain and injury, and incurable diseases can alter a rat\u2019s personality. The difference between these things and regular aging is that they can lead to abrupt changes in personality rather than a normal progression over time.<\/p>\n

If you notice an immediate change in your rat\u2019s temperament or they are acting \u201coff,\u201d then it\u2019s a good time to see a veterinarian. It\u2019s important to rule out pain or illness as the cause, or neurological conditions, such as a pituitary tumor or a stroke.<\/p>\n

Chronic illnesses like hind leg degeneration or respiratory diseases can permanently alter your rat\u2019s personality, but not necessarily for the worse. It just makes them different.<\/p>\n

For instance, I recently wrote about my girl Tru<\/a>, who had zero use for me throughout most of her life. Then she developed hind leg paralysis and realized not only that she needed me, but maybe I wasn\u2019t so bad after all. While she continued to stay standoffish, it was still shocking to find that she was actually willing to hang out with me on the couch. Under her own set of rules of course, but this was a new Tru!<\/p>\n

In sadder situations though, I\u2019ve had rats who were once trusting and playful become skittish and depressed because of illness. This is especially difficult when you need to hold them to give medication, provide specific care, or even just comfort them. In 2020, I watched my affectionate rat Paddington become anxious and refuse to be held as he battled pneumonia.<\/p>\n

Hormones And Rat Personality Changes<\/h3>\n
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When rats get upset with other rats, all their fur sticks straight out to make them look bigger. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This next topic technically exists within the health category, but I felt it was specific enough that it deserved its own section.<\/p>\n

I think we all know that hormones can affect the emotions of humans and animals, and they can also alter a rat\u2019s personality, especially male rats.<\/p>\n

To quote myself from another article I wrote Do Pet Rats Bite?<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cMale rats hit social maturity between 5 to 6 months old. This results in hormonal changes that can show up as late as 9 months old. These changes can cause some rats to act aggressively, especially toward their cagemates. Sometimes it also results in biting the owner. I\u2019ve had numerous males go through this transformation, but only one actually started biting me. Castration calmed him down, and he never bit me again.\u201d<\/p>\n

This might count as a temporary personality change, but I think it\u2019s important to discuss. Especially because it\u2019s not always short lived. When I first started out with rats (long before you could Google such things), I was totally unaware of what age a rat went through puberty, much less that it could create problems. So, when I first encountered this abrupt personality transformation, I didn\u2019t know to have my rat Opus neutered. Instead, to protect his cagemate Trespassers William, I bought a second cage and separated them. And because I didn\u2019t have Opus neutered, he stayed aggressive toward Tres until they were seniors. Near the very end of their lives, they were finally able to share a cage again. Age significantly lessens testosterone levels in male rats, and that\u2019s why Opus finally calmed back down. Live and learn I guess.<\/p>\n

Another thing I\u2019ve learned is that neutering doesn\u2019t automatically turn a hormonally aggressive or anxious rat back into the same rat they were before. I had one male, Sterling, that refused to get along with his brother Draper even after castration. Until they were seniors anyway, when they finally got along.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, other males of mine that required a neuter became even more docile than they were before puberty. But all of my neutered boys became much, much lazier after surgery.<\/p>\n

Females can be affected by hormones as well. Some, not all but some, can be rather combative while they are pregnant and nursing, only calming down after the babies have weaned.<\/p>\n

Life Experiences And Rat Personality Changes<\/h3>\n
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Topher, who had a reputation as a biter, never bit me and became a snuggler. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Life events, big or small, can also cause personality changes \u2014 for the good and the bad.<\/p>\n

Moments that seem less significant to us can affect rats differently and bring out or change their personality in unexpected ways. Moments can include a change in routine or environment, like moving to a new home, or bringing in new rat friends or other pets.<\/p>\n

Trauma can obviously lead to personality change as well. Carefree, happy rats that experience moments of terror, or worse, a lifetime of it, can become fearful and sometimes even aggressive toward humans.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, though, the opposite can also be said. Some traumatized rats can change through positive, reaffirming experiences. And watching the personality of one of these rats evolve over time, as they learn to trust, is a truly rewarding experience.<\/p>\n

When I wrote about Tru, I also wrote about another rat named Topher<\/a> who had been extremely afraid of humans. I adopted him from the humane society once I learned he\u2019d likely be put down for supposedly biting. I don\u2019t know what they were talking about though, because while Topher was truly frightened at first, he was never aggressive with me. But wow, was he like night and day once he learned to trust me! He became all about the love and snuggles.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Topher, however, I speculate that it wasn\u2019t entirely a personality change per se. Instead, I think it was more that Topher had finally been given a chance to unearth the personality that had been hiding inside him all along. But I\u2019ll never know for sure.<\/p>\n

Reviewing The Past<\/h3>\n

An unintentional but happy benefit of writing about rats for more than two decades is that I ultimately ended up creating a journal of sorts on my own rats. And any time I reread something I\u2019ve written in the past I can see all the ways they\u2019ve changed throughout their lives.<\/p>\n

Old memories of my rats as babies or teenagers come rushing back, and I realize just how much I have forgotten about them. It was my time with them at the end of their life that I remember the most. But what\u2019s most fascinating is seeing how much they changed, while staying the same in many very special ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pet rat personality changes can and do occur, and most changes are due to age, health issues, hormones, and life experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rat","category-rat-behavior"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3241\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}