I am a female, and me and my boyfriend have 2 female rats. We play with them, and they like both of us indiscriminately, yet lately one of our rats seems to be paying extra attention to the human male. She grooms him, pees on him, sniffs him, jumps on his head, etc. She is not scared or annoyed by me, she just seems not to really care. She is young. Why would she be like this all of a sudden?
2007-03-21 19:55:49 · 4 answers · asked by toadstoolcouch 2 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
How old are your girls? How long have you had them? How does the other girl act around him or you? You haven't mentioned how she fits into this? I know all about rat behavior but I need more info.
Her behavior has nothing to do with accepting your boyfriend as a mate, and it doesn't have anything to do with him being a man (if she can even think about the fact that he is male because rats don't think about which sex their owners are), there's another reason for her behavior.
Rats are social animals and will groom each other as a way of accepting one another as a member of a colony. This is called Allogrooming http://www.ratbehavior.org/norway_rat_ethogram.htm#Allogrooming and rats do it to each other, to their human care-givers, and to the cat or dog if they have accepted other species of animals into their colony. If she is grooming your boyfriend and paying more attention to him then it simply means that she has learned to trust him first and accept him as a member of the colony. Your turn may come soon.
I have over 30 rats right now. Some of them are my friends and they groom me, and pee on me, and crawl all over me, but others could care less about me. I love them all and accept them for who they are.
spazrats
"my life has gone to the rats"
2007-03-24 20:14:04 · answer #1 · answered by spazrats 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have observed this opposite sex bonding with humans in dogs, cats, certain rodents and parrot like birds. As to why ? I have no clue.
2007-03-22 09:08:44 · answer #2 · answered by hotsnakes2 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have to laugh, sorry about that, seems to me that your female rat had fallen inlove with your boyfriend.
2007-03-22 04:29:01 · answer #3 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
she's probably bonded to him as her mate. watch for her to get jelous of you. a friend of mine had a female rat that did that and she got mean with her guardian (i don't use the word owner it makes them a posssession).
2007-03-22 14:57:12 · answer #4 · answered by MommyCaleb 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋