Head Swaying

Ever since Sophie was born, she has always done this head swaying thing. She stands there, looks at you and sways her head back and forth for up to 3 minutes each time. it's like she is concentrating on something, any ideas what this is?

 

[Fidget]

Nothing to worry about, I've had a couple kids who did that, it's about poor vision distance-wise and trying to focus in. Pretty cool tho when a kid thinks you're interesting enough to expend the effort, huh?

 

Oh, okay haha .. I was starting to think something was srsly wrong with her ..just staring off like that ..its creepy ..but yes is it pretty cool that she thinks im interesting haha ..she tries real hard too!

 

[Rachael]

Is Sophie a paler eyed girl? Because generally REW/PEWs are the ones to do this. I think some people might have had darker eyed rats, but all of mine have been paler eyed and that's generally because they have the worst vision (although all rats don't have that great vision).

I'm just awake so maybe this makes no sense!

 

[lilspaz68]

Hahaha...that's just fine Rachael, pink and ruby eyed rats sometimes will sway to focus.

from http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatVision.htm#DepthOfFocus

Depth perception using motion parallax: However, there are many other ways to perceive depth besides binocular vision (e.g. image displacement, motion parallax, and loom). Motion parallax is one of these non-binocular methods of perceiving depth. When one moves one's head from side to side, objects seem to change position relative to each other. Close objects seem to move more than objects that are far away. This is called relative motion parallax, and the brain uses it to calculate relative distance between objects.

An image of the object also moves across the retina. The object's apparent movement across the retina, combined with the amplitude of the head movement are used to calculate absolute distance between the obeserver and the object. This is called retinal or absolute motion parallax (Kral 2003).

Rats use motion parallax to estimate depth. Legg and Lambert (1990) counted the number of vertical head bobs before rats jumped between two platforms. As the gap between the platforms increased, trained rats performed more, and larger head bobs before jumping. They may be adjusting the size of their head movement until they produce a detectable amount of motion parallax (Ellis et al. 1984). As the gap widens, larger head movements are needed. Legg and Lambert (1990) found that that rats could jump accurately even if only the leading edge of the platform was visible, indicating that rats use absolute motion parallax to estimate depth. However, the fact that the rats were reluctant to jump to just a leading edge indicates that they may prefer to use relative motion parallax.

 

[Rachael]

What I was trying to say is that generally REW/PEW are the ones who more commonly do it

 

[lilspaz68]

What I was trying to say is that generally REW/PEW are the ones who more commonly do it

and you did say it just fine. I just took out the acronyms so people might understand better, and the scientific explanation for people who want to learn a bit more about it.

 

[MomRat]

Our Ruby Eyed Beige rat does this a lot. We just put on some music and watch the little ratty head bang with daddy. =)

 

[LadyGray]

my girls do this and they do have ruby/pink eyes, it's so cool! it really is like a dance move! I always assumed all Rats did this. Lady does it the most, could that be why she's not as confident as my other Rat - because she's less sure of what's around her without concentrating?

 

[lindsayfawn]

I have found that all of our Beige hooded black eyed rats all sway and sway way more then any of our pink or ruby eyed ratties. Kinda interesting.

 

[victoria]

Most of my ruby and pink eyed girls have done this too... some more than others. I find that the ones that do it more are more timid/less confident, maybe because their eye sight it poorer.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I have found that all of our Beige hooded black eyed rats all sway and sway way more then any of our pink or ruby eyed ratties. Kinda interesting.

Your beige hooded will actually have really dark red/ruby eyes!

 

[jam]

Our Bongo does this. He's a ruby-eyed mink self. We've always thought it was really charming

 

[blytherue]

My pew Rex sways and my hairless does too! I thought the hairless was black eyed, does that mean he is actually ruby eyed?

 

Thanks guys, Sophie is Beige with black eyes.

This is her in head swaying motion.

 

[Rachael]

Haha she's so cute.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Thanks guys, Sophie is Beige with black eyes.

This is her in head swaying motion.

Cute pic but just so you know genetically beige rats will have ruby eyes. Sometimes (like Sophie) they appear black but they are in fact really dark ruby.

 

[quote="Ratty Momma":3127y3kq]Thanks guys, Sophie is Beige with black eyes.

This is her in head swaying motion.

Cute pic but just so you know genetically beige rats will have ruby eyes. Sometimes (like Sophie) they appear black but they are in fact really dark ruby.[/quote:3127y3kq]

I could swear that they are black ..I have a gerbil with really dark ruby eyes, but her's are actually black

 

[xxchelle]

There's no such thing as a beige rat with black eyes. Beige is actually a dilute of black, and it's produced by the RED gene (red eye dilution gene), meaning they'll also have red (ruby) eyes

 

[lilspaz68]

Here's another example of a beige rat with what looks like black eyes.

But she is beside an agouti girl who definitely has black eyes, and you can just see the difference, and you realize Kamali's eyes really are just a dark dark ruby.

Edit: Picture didn't post right :emb: