Rat behaviour
Make sure your rats are able to behave normally
Facts
- Rats use scent (e.g. urine) to mark their territory and to help them find their way.
- If given the chance, rats will dig tunnels and create burrows.
- Rats are active animals, and need to be given the opportunity to climb, hop, forage, explore, and play.
- Some rats enjoy playing in water, but this depends on the individual. Rats find forced swimming highly stressful.
- Rats are very clever and naturally curious, and will quickly become bored unless given things to do.
- Rats make vocal calls in many situations, particularly when meeting other rats or people. Some of these vocalisations cannot be heard by humans as they are too high pitched.
- Individual rats will behave differently in similar situations as they have different personalities and may have been reared in different ways.
- Rats are nocturnal, and so they are most active at night and during dawn and dusk.
- Rats are naturally cautious of new things that they have not encountered before.
- Rats use their very delicate and highly sensitive whiskers to maintain balance and guide them around objects.
- Rats like to play, especially when young.
- Rats are quick learners and have excellent memories. They are highly trainable, and this can help to keep them physically and mentally active.
Things you should do
- Make sure that you do not disturb your rats whilst they are resting or sleeping, as this can be stressful for them:
- Keep food provision, cage cleaning and owner/pet interactions to dawn and dusk wherever possible;
- Match your activity with that of your rats; do not house them in an area of the home that has lots of activity during the day.
- Make sure your give your rats the opportunity to climb in their home cage. Giving rats ropes helps them to develop their sense of balance. Rats not only climb ropes but they will also chew them, therefore only ropes should be made of natural fibres (e.g. cotton).
- Make sure your rats have the opportunity to run, hop, forage, explore and play.
- Once your rats are well-handled and relaxed, consider letting them explore, under supervision, outside their cage in a room in which they can’t hurt themselves or escape. See our factsheet on Free ranging behaviour (pdf 194kb).
- Never force your rats to do anything; they should be given the choice to investigate new environments in their own time and at their own pace. If a rat urinates or defecates when exposed to a new environment, this means that they are frightened or distressed and should be returned to their familiar home-cage.
- Give your rat the chance to dig. See our factsheet on Digging behaviour (pdf 176kb).
- Never force your rats to swim. If your rats enjoy playing with water, provide your rats with the opportunity to swim, in a safe and supervised manner, in a shallow container. See our factsheet on Rats and swimming (pdf 231kb).
- Never trim a rat’s whiskers. See our factsheet on Rats and their whiskers (pdf 227kb).
- Consider training your rats. This can help to improve the rat human bond, and will help keep them physically and mentally active. Never punish your rats, always use positive reinforcement to encourage training.
- Rats can soon learn new information and tasks, and will remember this over time. You can quickly train a rat to climb onto a weigh scale in order to gain a food reward, and this can make regular weighing of pet rats much easier.
