Swaying of the head

[Rattie Kisses]

What does swaying of the head mean in a rat? I just noticed my rat swaying his head while cuddling with the other rat.

 

[Moon]

The swaing rat, do they have pink or ruby eyes? It is often seen, especially in rats with these eye colours, when a rat can't see particularly well. Melody, my Himilayan, does it often

 

[lizi]

I was just reading about this earlier today actually.

From http://www.ratbehavior.org/WhatIsMyRatD ... tm#Swaying

Some rats, especially pink eyed albinos, often sway from side to side. Albino rats have extremely poor vision, and this swaying may help them see better. Dark-eyed rats may sway or bob their heads up and down too, though they tend to do so less frequently than albino rats. Head bobbing in dark-eyed rats is usually seen before the rat takes a big jump.

Swaying may help the rat figure out how far away various objects are. When a rat moves its head, the images of the objects around the rat move across its retina. Close objects will move faster than far ones, a phenomenon known as motion parallax. Rats may use such motion marallax cues to judge distance and depth.

:nod:

 

[LA]

I have two PEW's and Ruby does it all the time and always has. Willow on the other hand has never swayed. It really depends on the rat as well I guess.

 

[Rattie Kisses]

Thanks everyone, I never knew that. The rat that did it is dark eyed. I wonder why I never saw this in my PEW...

 

[jorats]

Not all rats do it. Also, some dark eyed rats are actually a very dark ruby color.
My Benjamin does this... makes him look oh so cute!

 

[melon_mayhem]

My rat Emma does it very frequently and she has dark ruby eyes. Emma also is my crazy escape artist rat :giggle:

Izzy on the other hand is a PEW and she has never swayed more then just a few times (she is much less of an escaper then Emma is)