Blind rat?

[Bronwyn]

Ginny's still a little squirt at nearing five months of age but I've noticed she kept a few strange baby tendencies she shared with her sister, like standing on their hind legs and falling right over. She did that a lot and still does. I just saw her race up the ladder in the FN only to crash into the side wall on the way up like she didn't see it. She tends to crane her head in different directions when looking at something.

She's never had an eye wound to my knowledge and both eyes look the same to me. They're red as she's a siamese so I don't have anyone to compare her to. Is this neurological or eyesight trouble?

 

[jorats]

My concern would not be her eyes, rats really don't use their eyes. They use their sense of smell in order to identify things. If she's crashing into things, my worry would be that she didn't sense it. Could it be just crazy fast running baby going too fast and not thinking where she's going?

 

[Cityratt]

shes a rex isnt she?....if her wiskers are curly would that give her trouble?

I know S has something going on with one of her eyes - its cloudy so maybe a cateract or glycoma or something but she still gets around as good as ever....

The boys are running around the couch as i type and say hi to their lil sisters

 

[Bronwyn]

It could be...it's just I never have seen this clumsy behaviour in my current or previous rats of which there were quite a few. Jo (her sister) doesn't do any of this and limits her baby ways to just using the ceiling of the FN as her main route of transportation. Ginny also seems really shocked when I touch her, like Jo (the human, lol) suggested, she acts like she didn't sense it.

She is a rex, yes. Though my other three rexes never showed this sort of behaviour either. It's really quite strange!

Sorry, it's a terrible shot but the only one where Ginny's eyes are little glowing balls, lol. A hello is being sent back to the cute brothers!

 

[jorats]

That's right, whiskers are very important to their senses. It sure does make sense that curly whiskers might play a role in her senses. Bron, keep a close eye on her, see if there are any other symptoms like falling over, circling, favouring one side.

 

[Bati]

I have a hairless / fuzz, with almost no whiskers, only one blind eye and I've never seen him bump into anything, only he gets surprised if a human graps him from above with no warning, other than that you'd never know he's lacking in whiskers / eyesight

 

[mamarat2]

We've had a few blind rats at my house over the years. Luke is our current blind kid. He gets around by memorizing the stuff that is in the cage, or seems to be. I don't change much in the area of the igloos and I keep the boxes in the general area. I normally have to literally show him around the cage on cleaning day, as when I take hammocks out for cleaning he is still looking to walk into them off the edge :shock: something we don't want him doing if the hammock really isn't there! Once he's got it figure though he is pretty good, then I show him when I put the hammock back in.

Other than that, he also startles when you touch him. He is quite literally blind and can't even pick up shadows so I normally try talking to him as I approach him to pet him or pick him up.

Blind rats, for all intensive purposes, should be able to get around in the same type of cage as the other rats. You just need to be careful when you move hammocks around so they know the hammies aren't there anymore.

I've never noticed rex rats have a problem with curly whiskers and feeling their way about. Best to keep an eye on her, would be concerned personally if she continues falling off shelves. But then like Jo said, could be baby behavior still.

Jen

 

[Bronwyn]

Thanks guys! Yeah it's the thing when she stands on her hind legs and just falls over on her back that concerns me...nothing I've observed before in my rats.

When do they grow out of the baby things?

 

[LA]

I find that Pearl my siamese seems far sighted. If you hold a piece of food and she's far away she can see it but when she gets close she seems to use her nose to find things. Also in a new surrounding she will lean against the 'walls' and will run along each wall to sort out the boundaries, she did it yesterday, we took the cage out and cleaned it all, so it smelt clean and she was confused. So she did this to figure everything out.