Bizarre Use of Teeth??

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SillyGilly

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2019
Messages
9
Location
El Paso, TX
Hey all!!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post! So, my rat Wizard was adopted from a pet store back in the beginning of March. We estimated him to be maybe three months or so when we got him. He has always been relatively healthy (i.e. he’s never had any porphyrin around his nose or eyes, he’s quiet when he hiccups, has never been a noisy breather, etc.). Back to my concern(?) though, lately, when met with confrontation from our older boys (who are all over a year old) he does this thing where he’ll open his mouth and just…put his teeth on their faces – kind of like he’s biting them but not really, he’s just putting his teeth on them. Can anyone tell me why he does this?? It’s just so strange, and none of our other boys have ever done this. It’s just Wizard. And sometimes he’ll even just do it out of the blue, like, one of our boys will be lounging and he’ll just come, unhinge his jaw, and just put parts of their face into his mouth! And casually sit there like that!!

I’m just super curious why he does this, so if anyone has any answers they would be most appreciated!! :)
 
I usually see that in rats who are incredibly stressed and scared. Yours doesn't sound like scared, not if he walks up to a lounging boy and do it. How do the other rats react? Did this just start recently or did he always do it? I'm assuming he lives with his buddies? How many in the cage?
 
I usually see that in rats who are incredibly stressed and scared. Yours doesn't sound like scared, not if he walks up to a lounging boy and do it. How do the other rats react? Did this just start recently or did he always do it? I'm assuming he lives with his buddies? How many in the cage?
There’s never really a reaction from the other boys, almost like it doesn’t bother them. Hmm I’d have to say that it did start just recently, maybe just about a month ago. They each share a cage with just one other boy, so two to a cage (mainly because our boy Giltine tends to be a bit of a bully to the other two but they all get along just fine when it comes to playtime; ie. grooming one another, cuddling, etc.)
 
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