Sudden aggression in male rat

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Errol

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Oct 24, 2017
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Hi everyone,

I have a solo male rat after his brother sadly had to be put to sleep a few months ago. He is roughly 1.5 - 2 years old and has always been the sweetest boy, always wanting cuddles and loving to be stroked and play. Yesterday he was his normal self very sweet and playful. He gets time outside his cage for 2 hours + a day and he always has the radio on for background noise when I am out.
Today however he really turned on me, I got him out the cage as usual and left him to free roam where I can see him. He appears very healthy and eats and drinks and was hopping around excitedly.
He wanted to jump on me as usual so I let him climb up and he took a chunk out of my arm! I didn't do anything different from usual and he jumped up of his own accord.
I let him calm down and later on he wanted to get up onto me again, this time he bit my neck and hands frantically. i put him back in his cage calmly, but now when I come near the cage he creeps out with very tense body language looking as if he wants to pounce. He even attempted to smash and bite at the bars to get at me!
I am very shocked as he is such a sweety usually, we have a very close bond and i'm at a loss to think why hes become like this so suddenly. he is not fearful just determined to get me!
Anyone have any suggestions or have seen anything like this before? My first reaction was that he is in pain, yet he comes to me to attack me, if he was hurting I would expect him to keep himself to himself and be quiet.
Sorry for the long post can anyone advise me?
 
Any changes in the environment?
New smells? New animals?
Do you smell different? Did you smell like another animal? like food?

Can he hold a small piece of food in his front paws and eat it?
Is one side of his body weaker then the other side?
Does he head butt when petted? Dies he seem confused at times?

How is his breathing? Shallow? Uses more effort?
How does he sound when you hold him up tp your ear and listen to both sides of his chest?
Does he go up high and hang his head down, or does he prop his head up?

Check his teeth .... are they ok? Any problems with the inside of his mouth.
Has he lost or gained any weight lately?

Here are some signs of pain http://ratguide.com/health/basics/signs_of_pain_in_rats.php

Please read these and see if anything sounds like him
http://ratguide.com/health/neoplasia/pituitary_tumor.php
http://ratguide.com/health/neurological/stroke.php
http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/mycoplasma_mycoplasmosis.php
 
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thanks for replying so quickly. I health check him often and everything seems to be completely normal. He still skips around like a young rat and is eating, breathing, pooing, weeing and drinking as normal. he has lost a small amount of weight due to him being on a diet.
There was nothing that differed from my usual routine with him, I have lots of other animals in my room but he is very familiar with their smells. He looks perfectly healthy to me, his coat is sleek and there is no visible porphyrin, I like to think that im pretty good at recognising when animals arent feeling themselves. Thanks for those links they were useful to read but he has none of the symptoms of a stroke or pituitary tumour.
I really don't know what it could be thats caused this, I guess i'll never know for sure, I'm just hoping that it was a one time thing and he wont hate me for the rest of his life!
I will see what hes like tomorrow, hopefully he'll be calmer.
 
I suppose it is possible although I've never witnessed him having one. I guess there is not much I can do about it if that is the case though, other than making the cage safer for him if he is having them. I am just really sad about this as I don't want him to have a lower quality of life because he is too aggressive to come out and play. I tried again with him this morning and he is still giving off the aggressive body language so I left him to it. Its so odd to me that he actually wants to come out of the cage to bite me, its like someone replaced him with a different rat!
 
I have been looking at him closely this morning and Im staring to think somethings not right with him. He is teeth chattering slightly but not in a friendly or super aggressive way, his extremities are also slightly pale, and he is doing an odd winking thing, never seen him wink excessively before. his eyes seem a little bit bulging too, I can see the white-ish corners if you know what I mean. I'll book a vets appointment.
 
I have seen him brux and boggle many times but this was different, he looks a bit out of it, I just cant put my finger on what is wrong. Do rats grind their teeth when in pain as rabbits do?
 
I have seen him brux and boggle many times but this was different, he looks a bit out of it, I just cant put my finger on what is wrong. Do rats grind their teeth when in pain as rabbits do?

yes, they grind their teeth when happy and also when in pain .... see the link to signs of pain in my previous post

If he has seizures, there are meds that can help ....... is it possible that he needs friends? (as u are aware, rats need to live with other rats)
 
hes going to the vets tomorrow so hopefully they can figure out if he is in any pain and what is wrong (if anything). Yes I am unfortunately unable to get other rats as I am moving next year and its very hard to get landlords which will accept rats, my two boys were really a rescue from a horrible pet shop. I do have a feeling that this may be psychological, I hate to think of him being lonely and I have considered re homing but its so hard to find genuine nice homes. At least hes safe and loved and well looked after with me. Thanks for your help guys hopefully after the vets I 'll have a clearer idea of whats up
 
The vet said that he is in perfect health and that the only thing she could think of was it being hormone related, maybe he's trying to dominate me haha. So I am thinking about getting him neutered just weighing up pros and cons ☺️
 
I highly recommend neutering. I've had it done dozens of times on my males. It really helps them calm down and enjoy life without all that nasty hormones getting in the way.
 
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