Funny things our rats do

[ViciousCurse]

Feel free to share your own stories, but some of the funniest things my rats do is yawning RIGHT in my face. Full out jaws-spread and everything. Sometimes their teeth will mistakenly bump my nose, which I know is not intentional on their part.

Coming when other names are called. I have Ni Ni who runs up whenever I call for Grumpy or someone else. It always feels like a "Me! Me! Ooh, pick me!" moment. Admittedly, I enforce the behavior by picking him up whenever he does that.

Grumpy likes to give kisses back whenever I kiss him. Except... he tries to lick the inside of my nose, which I discourage, but he is quite stubborn. He'll do this to friends as well. Now he licks the insides of my lips. Again, I discourage, but Grumpy is quite adamant about licking back.

And of course, tail wigglers! If I rub Genji's head and shoulders in just the right spot with just the right amount of pressure and speed, his tail will begin to wiggle like crazy. If I'm lucky, I'll get kisses back, but I always get happy bruxing.

 

[Dena]

I can sit in my living room, about 20 feet from their cage, and say "fat rats", and my two fat boys (Taco and Brother) will run to the edge of their cage and look for me.

Brother likes to sit on a shelf where I would be in his line of sight, and stare in my direction when I'm sitting on my chair. He will do this for an hour or so, until I feel guilted into coming and letting him out, or picking him up and loving on him. He lays in a way like he's bored, and resting his chin on a propped up arm.

If I pick Brother up, and have bad breath, he lets me know. He will sniff my mouth, then kinda wrinkle his nose, and puts his hand over my mouth! If I try to get close to his face, he will lean away, close his eyes, and put his hand on my mouth, and push me away, while he turns his head. If my breath smells nice to him, he will close his eyes, lean, while putting his nose close to my mouth. It's kinda hard to describe.

Taco will run to me when I open the cage, and kind of politely ask to be taken out, by clocking his head, with one foot on my hand. He NEVER goes where he isn't invited, and won't climb out onto anyone, or anything. He's very well behaved. If he's on the stairs playing on the landing, and I, or other rats run upstairs, he will stand at the bottom with a paw on the step, asking to be taken upstairs. I can never coax him or entice him to go where he thinks is out of bounds.

If I hand Taco to a stranger, he will beg me to take him back. He politely avoids the stranger's touch and tries to distance himself from them while turning toward me and with a paw up.

Of course the usual, when you give one of them a treat, and another steals is right out of their mouth....even if it has already been chewed (hey less work, huh)! That always cracks me up.

 

[TheFatRatGirl]

I have one girl, Pearl, who tries to stick her entire head up my nose. It comes out of the blue too! The other day the girls were freeranging and i was lounging on my bed watching something on my laptop and she comes out of nowhere, super fast, and sjust shoves her head up there! Bit of a shock!

 

[Dena]

Macaroni, and créme, two of my girls like to do a nose check too. It's so weird, but so cute! Mackie will try to be sly and will be giving me kisses, while she's poking her nose up mine! If you're not careful, when they sit on your shoulder, they will stuff their nose in your ear, too. Haha! When they try to do it to our mouths, we call is "rodentistry".

 

[ViciousCurse]

I'm not the only one with a nose licker! Grumpy is often very persistent about licking the inside of my nose. Sometimes, he even bites down. Nothing to cause physical pain or anything, just like he's scraping. It's so gross, lol! Then he tries to lick my cheeks! "Ah, Grumpy! No!"

I LOVE whiskers in the ears. It's such a funny feeling lol

 

[Tramca]

I've had my girls a week. And one of them sits on my chest, paws on my face, then tugs hard on my bottom lip and tries to put her head in my mouth. I must say she's strong, and my poor lip does NOT like those little claws.
She also tries to shove her nose up my nostril

 

[Dena]

I've had my girls a week. And one of them sits on my chest, paws on my face, then tugs hard on my bottom lip and tries to put her head in my mouth. I must say she's strong, and my poor lip does NOT like those little claws.
She also tries to shove her nose up my nostril

RODENTISTRY! Hahaha!

 

[ViciousCurse]

I have felt the hard pull on my lower lip! Very painful. They usually get confused why I don't let them sniff my mouth. (Edit: I don't let them in my mouth because I chew gum constantly for my anxiety and I don't want them stealing my gum or eating it)

I got to say, one of my favorite things is when a rat just puddles out on your chest and falls asleep. When Grumpy used to puddle out (and he had A LOT of extra skin), he'd maybe get a little offended when I'd laugh in good spirits.

Of course, we can't forget the behavior Grumpy taught everyone else... Pulling on the human's shirt and looking down there! I feel like I've mentioned it, but now my other boys do it. And it's not like they poke their head in and then they're done. No, it's full... sticking their head, shoulders, etc. in. And then struggle to back out because they leaned down too far lol. I maybe even get a tail slap to the face.

Also, who loves when the tail slaps them in the face lol? Gideon, one of my originals, was notorious for sitting on my shoulder and then wrapping his tail around my face when he'd slightly lose his balance. I got whacked a few times when I'd move too suddenly.

 

[Dena]

Tail slaps! Haha! I thought we were the only ones who called it that! Mine will tail slap me every time they lose their balance! Macaroni will wrap her tail gently around my face when she feels unsteady, but the others aren't so polite! I also have a couple shirt divers. Macaroni does it to any and everyone who holds her. She loves to run down your shirt and poke her head out and just sit like that. Or she dogs around wherever she pleases in there! Skittle just runs down, then back out once he's satisfied you don't have snacks down there! He also likes to jump up in my lap while I'm on the toilet (yes they have a playroom set up in my bathroom).

 

[Evermore]

Oh god... I love reading all of these. They're so full of personality (the stories and the rats!).

Our Bianca (3-year-old red-eyed fawn berk [?]) loves to sleep in ways that make her look dead. Belly-up, legs stiff, head tilted back. She also sleeps like a rock and doesn't wake up even when you pick her up sometimes. She has taught the new babies, Pidge and Ripley, to sleep like this too. They're going to give my husband a heart attack, I swear.

Pidge and Ripley both use Bianca as a bed, or as a trampoline. Bianca whines but is amazingly tolerant.

One of our previous girls, Mercy, used to tuck her head in my ear and fall asleep that way - the weirdo. Her sister, Luka, used to climb to a higher vantage point, shriek, and then leap off and body slam poor Mercy (playfully). Initially we assumed she was being aggressive but it turns out she was just silly.

 

[ViciousCurse]

Oh god... I love reading all of these. They're so full of personality (the stories and the rats!).

Our Bianca (3-year-old red-eyed fawn berk [?]) loves to sleep in ways that make her look dead. Belly-up, legs stiff, head tilted back. She also sleeps like a rock and doesn't wake up even when you pick her up sometimes. She has taught the new babies, Pidge and Ripley, to sleep like this too. They're going to give my husband a heart attack, I swear.

Pidge and Ripley both use Bianca as a bed, or as a trampoline. Bianca whines but is amazingly tolerant.

One of our previous girls, Mercy, used to tuck her head in my ear and fall asleep that way - the weirdo. Her sister, Luka, used to climb to a higher vantage point, shriek, and then leap off and body slam poor Mercy (playfully). Initially we assumed she was being aggressive but it turns out she was just silly.

My corgi sleeps just like Bianca lol! I call it the dead bug pose. He's on his back and his little stubby legs are in the air. It's funny when he lifts his head and tries to look at me, because I, of course, can't help but snicker at him.

Amun did the "sleeping like a rock" thing to me once! Scared the bejeezus out of me when I picked up Amun and he was like a wet noodle. First time I've ever had a rat do that and my brain was like "IS HE DEAD?!" He wasn't thankfully, but it was a scary first-time experience. I'm sure he was just thinking "Silly human, I was tired from playing all night with the new babies." (My now elderly/passed rats, Ni Ni, Lil Chu, and Grumpy were just babies back then, along with their brother, Platt, who passed away young due to megacolon).

I love silly rats, even if they do make us nervous ha ha. My Ni Ni used to be a very whiny boy, but he seems to have mellowed with age (he's just past his second birthday). Now Genji's filled the role of whiny boy... I had both of these boys in my arms today and Ni climbed on top of Genji to get closer to me, and Genji just whined. I mean, Ni just put his little front paws on Genji and he whined.