What is she doing?

[Kriix]

Hi Everybody!

I have one female rat (Mama - 1 Year) who has started doing a weird behaviour/routine during free-roam time - It seems to be a good thing, but I have no idea what she's doing.

She is super social and loves to be pet, played with, scritched, etc. During free-roam time (about 5 hrs) as soon as I come into the room, she will run up to my leg and try to climb it until I sit on the floor. Then she wanders around exploring me, ends up right at my mouth - she starts bruxing (I think that's what it's called), sniffs and scratches my lips and then she opens her mouth really wide and kind of places her teeth on my mouth with a little pressure, then runs away for 2 seconds while marking me. And comes back and does it all over again...

It's super cute, and I've just been assuming it's a good thing. It's not super fun when your allergic to your rats and have rashes all over your face, but definitely still cute.

I also have another female (Kona - 10 Months) that I’ve been worrying about on and off. She seems to be very vocal and makes some of the weirdest noises. The other day she was making what sounds to me like a monkey, but also makes quieter noises and seems to snore while sleeping. I have had her in to Dr.Gerena (London, ON) and he says she is in perfect health - good heart, lungs, weight, skin, shiny fur, clear eyes, attentive, eating, etc. He prescribed a round of Baytril which she has finished, but still makes the noises. This has been going on for about as long as I can remember, and the vet said there was nothing to worry about. So I was just wondering if some rats are more vocal then others? or is this a health issue that I should be concerned about?

Sorry for such a long posting, and thanks to everybody in advance!

 

I have no idea about this one, I am curious to what others have to say though

 

[jorats]

Mama is just a crazy silly girl having fun. Some rat love to clean our teeth but I always advise against this because our mouth is so full of bacteria especially our teeth.
Kona is a little bit of a concern but you've already seen the vet and he's declared her healthy... but, continue to keep an eye or an ear on her.
How long was her Baytril treatment?

 

[Kriix]

Mama is just a crazy silly girl having fun. Some rat love to clean our teeth but I always advise against this because our mouth is so full of bacteria especially our teeth.
Kona is a little bit of a concern but you've already seen the vet and he's declared her healthy... but, continue to keep an eye or an ear on her.
How long was her Baytril treatment?

Lol, I thought that might be it. She's always been a crazy one, and definately has a really strong personality.
My ratties personally aren't all that huge on the teeth cleanings, but they do love cleaning my eyes, and attepmting to shove thier noses up my nose and in my ears!

Kona I will definately keep looking out for. I'm just hoping it's a natural thing for her and not some illness - since she has been doing this since at least the summer time, but it has not escalated and her overall health has not decreased at all.

Her Baytril treatment I believed lasted about 2 weeks- somewhere between 10-14 days I believe. It was a few weeks ago and I didn't keep the bottle so I am not 100% certain. Her dosage was 0.12ml and she was 1/2lb at the time. Of course she didn't get the entire bottle to herself since the other 4 stole drops every once in a while. :roll:

When we went in he said he was only prescribing it as a 'just in case' type thing, so that if anything was developing we could stop it before it advanced. We were also one of the only clients in at the time so she got tons of attention from the receptionists and Dr.Gerena had her running all over the room and giving cuddles. He said he doubted anything was wrong with her, since she was in such good shape and had so much energy. The noises that she makes go on and off through out the day though, so I'm not sure if he was able to hear all that many of them.

 

[jorats]

I've got one little guy like that. He makes noises on and off. I used to treat it each and every time but it still keeps coming back. I've decided until I see other symptoms like change in appetite, change in activity level, I'm just going to keep an eye on him.