{"id":4413,"date":"2025-08-25T14:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/?p=4413"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:03:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:03:35","slug":"the-quirky-side-of-rats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/the-quirky-side-of-rats\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quirky Side Of Rats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rats are so unique and, yes, quirky sometimes! Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When someone new learns about my obsession with rats, it\u2019s usually met with surprise and a handful of questions. I know their curiosity only extends so far though, so I try not to infodump everything I know about these loveable oddballs \u2014 which is a lot!<\/p>\n

What I\u2019d really like time to tell them about is all the delightfully, amusing quirks that make rats bizarrely fascinating and never boring. Instead, I give short answers, hoping to avoid their eyes from glazing over.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I do get to write about my favorite animal. Which means this month, dear readers, you\u2019ll be the ones who get to hear about the endearing habits of a rat. At least a few anyway. Some of their quirks even have layers of extra quirks, just adding to the greatness of rats. Note that while some behaviors may only be exhibited during supervised out-of-cage time, they\u2019re no less adorable.<\/p>\n

Brux And Boggle<\/h3>\n
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This photo shows Regent with his eyes in mid-boggle. The eyes actually bulge out farther. His jaw is sticking out a bit because of bruxing at the same time. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I frequently mention the phenomenon of eye boggling<\/a> and bruxing in my articles, but it would be absolutely sacrilegious to leave them out of this one. They are unequivocally the most well-known (by owners) of all rat idiosyncrasies and are probably the most favored.<\/p>\n

Bruxing is the act of teeth grinding, which is a necessary action rats use to keep their teeth<\/a> trimmed. But more importantly (in my opinion), it\u2019s also done to express emotion. Some rats will brux when upset or frightened; but more typically, it occurs when rats are happy and content. It\u2019s essentially their version of purring and is a most welcome sound.<\/p>\n

Eye boggling is a rapid eye movement that causes the eyes to literally bulge out of the sockets over and over again as if the rat was a Looney Tunes character. It\u2019s as ridiculous looking as it sounds, and bizarrely adorable.<\/p>\n

This visual action and sound effect actually go hand in hand. The only way you\u2019ll even see boggling is if there\u2019s a lot of (happy) bruxing. That\u2019s because boggling requires a lot of rapid movement of the jaw muscles placed just behind their eyes to make them vibrate. Once they do, it means you have one blissed-out rat!<\/p>\n

The first time I experienced this cartoonish eye protrusion, I genuinely freaked out. This was long before the internet, and it was never mentioned in any of the rat books I owned. Considering how unnatural \u2014 and frankly implausible \u2014 looking it is, I legitimately had no understanding of what was happening. So, I decided to take Rory the eye popper to the vet. But when I described what I had witnessed, I was looked at like I was a crazy person. And considering how unhappy Rory was to be there, he was not inclined to demonstrate said boggling. Irritatingly, the vet suggested I had imagined it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear to me now that this very normal and common rat occurrence was not being taught in veterinary schools; maybe it still isn\u2019t. Once the internet was available, however, I learned that I wasn\u2019t the only new owner to panic the first time they experienced a really happy rat.<\/p>\n

Obsessive Grooming<\/h3>\n
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Rats are fastidious groomers and sometimes look like contortionists during grooming sessions. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rats have a reputation for being filthy, disease-spreading vermin, when in reality wild and domestic rats alike are fastidious groomers. Owners are keenly aware of this, since a rat\u2019s grooming habits are so easily observed.<\/p>\n

While locked in hyper focus, rats will spend hours bathing<\/a> almost every square inch of themselves, numerous times a day. OK, not really hours, but it sure seems like it. Using their paws to wipe their fur down and teeth to nibble on any dirty area, these meticulous rodents can even become contortionists as they try to hit those hard-to-reach-spots. They are also willing to go where no one ever should, by digging around in their ears with a back foot and then diligently inspecting their toes for earwax. They are nothing if not thorough.<\/p>\n

I particularly enjoy watching an exhaustive foot-bathing session, where close attention is spent cleaning each and every toe as they are splayed out as far as they can go.<\/p>\n

Ironically, these clean freaks rarely include their tails. In three decades, I can count on one hand the number of times I\u2019ve actually witnessed a tail being groomed. It was always a real double-take, stop-what-I-was-doing moment when I did see it occur. So, if you happen to have a rat that actually cleans their tail, then I\u2019d say you have one quirky rat!<\/p>\n

Allogrooming Obsessions<\/h3>\n
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Fingers are a favorite for rats to “groom” for you. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rats can get so obsessed with being clean that they have the audacity to frantically start grooming themselves immediately after being touched by their humans. It\u2019s not hard to be a little offended by this blunt critique of theirs, and it makes me wonder if they think we\u2019re the filthy ones. Thankfully, they are very willing to provide us with a bath of our own.<\/p>\n

Rats are known for allogrooming (grooming another). They love grooming their cagemates and grooming their owners<\/a> as well. This alone isn\u2019t peculiar, many types of pets do this, but rats can get a little pushy about it<\/a>. They can also have favorite areas to clean.<\/p>\n

Many rats are captivated by their owner\u2019s hair and will lick or chew on it. Other rats like to groom their owner\u2019s face. Several of mine would regularly demand to clean my cheeks and eyelids for me. While I appreciated their desire to look after me, \u201cgentle\u201d little nibbles of allogrooming can feel very ungentle on such delicate areas.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say the majority of rats, though, go straight for their human\u2019s fingers, nails included. And some rats are even habitual \u201cnail biters.\u201d Instead of chewing their own nails (which some actually do), they want to chew on yours! But act thankful, because they probably think you need them \u201ctrimmed\u201d and are unselfishly providing you a free rat-icure.<\/p>\n

Rodentists<\/h3>\n
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A rat obsessed with grooming another’s teeth is known as a rodentist. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the wackiest allogrooming obsession a rat can possess involves their human\u2019s teeth. I discussed this one already in a past article, Quirky Rat Traits Or Rat Pranks?<\/a>, but it deserves another mention. This quirk is so well known among the rat community that there\u2019s even a term for it: Rodentistry. And a rodentist is a rat that LOVES cleaning their owner\u2019s teeth!<\/p>\n

They also have absolutely no fear of shoving their defenseless little heads into the mouths of their humans to rid them of \u2014 of what I don\u2019t know exactly. But rest assured, these rats won\u2019t stop until they\u2019ve got it all.<\/p>\n

Rory the eye boggler was also a rodentist, and man did he take his job seriously! There wasn\u2019t a single day that boy wasn\u2019t actively trying to pry open my mouth with his itty-bitty paws, with very sharp nails, so he could feverishly clean my teeth. Even when I protested with muffled laughter and a, \u201cno, no, no\u201d through my tightly pinched lips, Rory was determined to do his daily inspection. Even if it meant using his nose to shove his way through. Despite having tiny little scratches around my mouth for the entirety of his life, it was extremely amusing. I secretly loved Rory\u2019s unrelenting determination.<\/p>\n

Taste-Testers<\/h3>\n
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Rats have no problem trying to steal food from each other, or even from you if you’re giving them out-of-cage time when you happen to be eating. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rats have zero manners when it comes to your food. If they are out of their cage while you\u2019re trying to eat, they will expect a taste or your entire portion. They will not politely ask for whatever yummy morsel you have either, nor will they bother begging with puppy eyes. Instead, every rat within a 2-foot radius will immediately take notice the second they smell your food and will come rushing in a mad dash to brazenly snatch it from your plate or fingers. And don\u2019t think stuffing the food in your mouth will stop them, because they are absolutely willing to dive in after it! Or at the very least, lick your lips clean.<\/p>\n

But hey, they aren\u2019t treating you any differently than they\u2019d treat each other. I\u2019ve watched my rats steal food away from their friends and even right out of a cagemate\u2019s mouth more times than I can count.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re better off accepting that the bowl of ice cream you plan on eating on the couch will be enjoyed with a rat or two, or four, trying to pry the bowl or spoon away from you. And don\u2019t think your beverages are safe either. Rats are more than happy to sit perched like a gargoyle on the side of a glass or mug, helping themselves to whatever it contains.<\/p>\n

Sleeping<\/h3>\n
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I had several back-sleepers over the years, but these goofballs were the only ones to make back-sleeping a group event. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nothing is cuter than a snoozing rat, but some take this cuteness to the next level. I\u2019m talking about back-sleepers<\/a>. Generally, rats are less inclined to lie on their backs, likely due to feeling too vulnerable. However, some rats prefer to sleep sprawled out and belly up like there should be a chalk line drawn around them.<\/p>\n

My twin boys, Moffett and Brinley, must have been born with some sort of back-sleeping gene. Not only did they do this as a joint effort, but they even taught their cagemate Kelton (not related) to sleep that way, too.<\/p>\n

Drinking In Tandem<\/h3>\n
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Potter and his brother Granger are trying to drink at the same time. Look closely and you’ll see that Potter is upside-down. Brandi Saxton<\/a> of It’s A Rat’s World<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Years before the twins, I had another back-sleeper named Potter. He took being quirky as a challenge and added an extra level of flare by doing his back sleeping directly under the water bottle. This prevented his cagemates from being able to get water without waking him up, which I suspect was his plan. Potter hated drinking solo and saw it as a group event. If another rat approached the water bottle when Potter was awake and away from his perch, he would stop whatever he was doing to race across the cage and join in. His behavior was even contagious apparently, because eventually all four of the rats in that group were regularly drinking simultaneously from the one tiny water bottle nozzle. Adding even more weirdness to it all, Potter also chose to do his drinking while lying on his back, too, as the other rats stayed upright.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had other tandem drinkers over the years, so this is not a Potter-centric quirk, but he was certainly my most codependent of the bunch and definitely the most dramatic about it.<\/p>\n

More Quirks To Be Discovered<\/h3>\n

I haven\u2019t even scratched the surface when it comes to all the amusing traits that rats possess. There are countless ways they continue to surprise and delight their owners, and each rat has the ability to make a quirk uniquely their own. Plus, the moment you think you\u2019ve seen every strange habit a rat can possibly have, they\u2019ll find a way to prove you wrong.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to read comments below about the silly things your rats do that entertain you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rats are unique individuals and sometimes display some pretty unique behaviors that range from boggling to back sleeping to group drinking and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rat","category-rat-behavior","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413","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=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4417,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions\/4417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/mammals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}