Rat putting teeth around cage bars and grinding teeth?

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benzin.fox

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
211
Location
central coast,NSW,Australia
Does anyone else's rats do this?

It makes a very distinct sound and only one of my girls does it. At first I thought she was trying to gnaw her way out of the cage (so i gave her more out-time) but it continued and upon closer inspection it turns out she's not actually chewing the bars at all just putting it in her mouth,closing her teeth around the bar and grinding them.

Any ideas on this behaviour?
 
Now i feel like i'm not doing a good enough job keeping them un-bored! soon they'll be as bad as the ferrets..
*dreads*

Lucky it doesnt drive me crazy or i would be in trouble

Thanks for the reply.glad to know Marcelle Pencil isnt as insane as she round
 
I've had a couple do this.. Mostly because they wanted more out time, They'll do it if they are bored. I've also seen it in rats that were experiencing pain.
But if your rats get a good hour of out time a day and have plenty of toys, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
they get their hour a day (sometimes more) and have toys of course! i have also noticed that she does it when the others are asleep so maybe she really is lonely and bored.ill make even more of an effort to get her out and give her more free-time and one on one time with me.

aww she is beautiful.thank you!
 
My Bill does this, even though he now has buddies and lives in an FN. He did some damage to my 695 when he was living in it. I think it's a habit he picked up before I adopted him. At that time he "lived" in a small hamster cage, with no companions and very little out time. It must have driven him nuts, and the behaviour would have at least attracted some attention.

I don't worry about it now. It's infrequent now that he has buddies, and he doesn't harm the FN. When he was in the 695 I used to wait til he stopped it, then immediately pay attention to him and maybe give him a treat (rewarding when he was not doing the behaviour).
 
Yep, I have definetly had rats that do this. Right now, Cinder does this, because at night, she always escapes from the FN ( I am hopefully getting some hardware cloth to fix that issue soon) and so I have to put her in the smaller hospital cage for the night. She HATES this, and does that tot eh bars because she knows it will get me to pet her, or open teh door to get her to stop, and she can try to escape again. I wish I could just let her out to play free in my room, but she has chewed huge holes in my box spring ad goes INSIDE it, so I can't trust her at night!

It sure is annoying though!
 
Yup, I have two boys, Remi and Oliver, who do it when I'm late for their out time. When I get home from work at 9PM the first thing I do is let the furkids out for playtime But if I should be late taking them out, they'll start on the bars. They have me trained well.
 
hehehe the first thing i do when i get home is tend to the ratsons too:) i wonder if they chew when i am not home or if it is just for attention?-i usually ignore it anyway and let them out when they stop so they dont associate it with positive results!

(much like dog training?) rats are so so not dumb and so full of LOVE!
 
Fergus would do this to get my attention. He was the most annoying and loving mama's boy ever. I miss that grinding noise and those peeps of "hey Im right here mom, give me kisses" so much.
 
Ah. My rowdy one does that. I usually tap the cage and tell him to knock it off. If it is viewed as a way of getting some attention, I may have to pretend it isn't bothering me, eh?
I usually give them some good solid "out time" when I come home and several breaks during the evening. I'm pretty hectic in the morning and offer up some outside time, but the little buggers are late sleepers, at least until they hear food falling into the dish.
If it is a thing to do while bored, I'm glad the cage has no plastic that can be chewed through.
 
I have several that do this. The middle age kids 4-8 months are the worse. I finally covered the doorway of their FF cage with a piece of fleece. That helped a lot. I also use a squirt bottle not in the face but get them on the side or on their chest . This has been very effective and the behavior has almost completely stopped at least when I am home.
 
has anyone put a blanket over the cage before and came back to see almost the whole blanket has been pulled into the cage with holes chewed in it? -i made this mistake when the rats were young (my first time with rats) and put my mums favourite hand made blanket over the cages...oooops...
 
:giggle: yup I found that out too....when I first got my boys I thought that covering them up might help them get used to their new cage but luckily I had just used a bed sheet
 
My boys chew the bars when they want attention or food...they know it will get a response even if it is not what they want. I am trying just to ignore it and provide more things for them to chew on. It seems to have curbed a bit.
I do cover my boys' cages with towels, simply because in their room their is a sliding glass door and a heating vent, so I try to protect them from drafts. They pull it in and chew on it, but the towels are purchased with them in mind, once the ends are all frayed they seem to just leave it alone.
 

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