Feeder rat personalities

[Bdadawg]

Every now and then I see something on here about my rat displays this trait .. is it normal. With rats nothing seems to be normal ... but I figured id jot down the personalities ive seen with brief descriptions. This is mostly for fun.

These are in no particular order ...

The Beaver: This tends to be females ... they take all the bedding in the enclosure and build a "dam". This usually involoves bedding getting jammed in the tracks for the tub and going through the mesh.


The Freak: This also tends to be females. They will grab one baby and try to stuff it anywhere that looks "safe". This usually involves one baby being picked up and repeatedly "stuffed" into areas. You should try to minimize the amount of time needed to have the tub open as at some point it usually ends up biting the baby too hard. They tend to outgrow it after a few litters.

The I Can Only Save One: Again tends to be females. This female will grab the "pick of the litter" and rush to the back corner of the enclosure. While resembling "the freak", the I can only save one will usually hunker over that baby trying not to let you near it.

The Burrower: Not gender specific. These rats feel safe when they burrow under the bedding. They burrow through nests, bathroom areas, etc. Generally throwing the whole tub into chaos.

The Survivalist: Not gender specific. These rats will rush to the back of the enclosure, if female dragging nursing babies and leaving a trail, they will get to the very back of the huddle of rats and seem to push the other ones forward. They seem to know that babies will slow them down or draw attention to them so they are abandoned at the first hint of you opeing their enclosure.


The Manicurist: Not gender specific. These rats carefully inspect all aspects of your hand. If there is a "dirty spot" they will lick it clean. If your cuticles are in bad shape they will nibble them off. They clean out underneath your fingernails as well.They also try to clean your rings for you. These are great rats to have if you are in the dating mode as they help you to look well groomed. Be cautious of the Male manicurist as he will usually pee all over your hand and arm once he is done.


The Hoarder: Not gender specific but usually female. These rats will spend all day working on getting food through the mesh to hide. If you give them treats they are the ones that grab one in their mouth and 2 front paws and run back and forth from their "secret stash" to the food/treat pile.

The Piggie: Again not gender specific but usually females. They do all of "The Hoarder" tricks, in addition they will drop everything in order to be the first to see what new food or treats you may be offering. They push other rats out of the way, forcefully, and will leave a nursing litter wondering where their dam went.

The Momma: Females. These are the rats that every breeder hopes to get. Nursing a litter is their prime priority. They will also take in all strays, adopt litters, and help out/show first time mothers how to do it. They tend to be a bit meek and should not be kept with more aggressive rats.

The Beast/Witch: So far all of these have been females. These are the females that you know are just generally cantankerous. Any time your hand goes in their tub you know you are going to git at least a nip. This is the tub you dread on cleaning day because you know that they are going to do everything they can to escape and prolly give you a nip at the same time. While you know you should cull these rats they have 1 or 2 redeeming qualities. Abnormally large size or abnormally large litters seem to be their forte.


The Layabout: I have found these to be males. They are just plain lazy. They will usually lay down where it is an easy reach to both water and food. Sometimes they have no interest in breeding other times the females have to strongly encourage them. Once done they go and lay back down.

The Cassanova: These males are strongly interested in mating. At even a hint of readiness he will go check all the females to see which ones are ready. Sometimes he will make up these "hints" just to make sure he isnt missing out on anything.


The Bully: While the Cassanova is nice about checking out the females the bully isnt. He will knock the females over and then stand on them to check them out. The females dont necessarily have to be ready or willing for him to mate with them. He is another one you dread on cleaning day. He realizes you are bigger than he is so he doesnt bite or nip ... but he does NOT like to be picked up and has no problem with scratching.


These traits seem to follow through into their litters. If they arent genetic they are definetly learned.

Feel free to rename the ones listed above or to add your own. Ill see If I cant get some pictures up in the next little while.

Bryan

[frankykeno]

Wonderful Bryan! Hilarious too (I swear I dated the human equivalent of the "layabout" a time or two!). I have one of those "burrower" females...drives me nuts...you'd think I was the devil incarnate by how fast that female will abandon her poor defenseless young to tunnel off and hide from me. She just never gets it that I'm the human who brings her food and water daily (I don't think burrowers are the sharpest rats in the colony if ya know what I mean )

I would add in:

The Princess: Female. If housed with another nursing female she will gladly let the other female take over both litters. She will lay about, grooming and napping, getting up to get a snack before returning to her own business. She could care less if the other female is doing all the work. She will nurse if she must (basically the pups have to swarm her to get a meal) but will sometimes lay on her belly to avoid the whole boring mothering thing. These females do best left alone with their litters so they have to deal with them, instead of pushing off the work on any other nursing female around.

The Socialite: Usually female. Will stand up and try to get your attention or scurry up your arm for a bit of one-on-one with her favorite human. Likes humans a lot better than other rats. Usually gets picked on by the other females (well they know she's a snob! LOL). Males can be social butterflies too unless there are females around then they have better things to do (see Casanova and The Bully)

[BPythonguy]

i didnt know rats had so many personalities

[4Khan]

The escape artist
Spends most of its waking time looking for a way out. rather its "digging" in corners or trying to get the top off...always looking for a way out. Uses the other rommates as a table to climb on, uses your arm as a ladder when your cleaning about in the inside.

The "I know your hiding it somewhere"
If being held, always assumes your hiding something somewhere on your body. Crawls under your shirt, in your hair, in sleeves, up to your face and checks out your ears-mouth-eyes. Looks in pockets...where every you can hide something...they gotta check it.

Thats pretty much what i get outta my bunch.
Fat Ma has both those qualities, shes a sweetheart.
Lucy on the other hand,totally the princess.

[xdeus]

The Saboteur
Seems to enjoy pushing the bedding into a huge pile right under the water stem, subsequently draining the water bottle and getting fresh bedding sooner than the others.

[JLC]

What an awesome thread! Too funny! Can't wait til I can finally have a reason to breed my own rats...they're so cool!

[frankykeno]

The Saboteur
Seems to enjoy pushing the bedding into a huge pile right under the water stem, subsequently draining the water bottle and getting fresh bedding sooner than the others.

Acck the little snots! I figured they were doing it for some evil rat purpose! You definitely think "rat" to have figured that one out LOL.

Oh forgot one more though it's only a brief thing not really a full personality thing...but kinda funny....

The I'm Not Dead Rat: Always a Female and always a very pregnant Female. This rat will lay over fully on it's back....it will fall fast asleep in this position...usually with it's little front paws on it's chest. You will walk in. You will go...OMG MY BREEDING FEMALE RAT HAS UP AND DIED ON ME! You will run to her tub, she will crack one eye open and look at you like you've lost whatever passes for a brain that humans have. All the other female rats will snicker in a quietly, rattly fashion. Shortly thereafter the I'm Not Dead Rat will present you with a lovely bunch of fat pink babies.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Anyone else have rats that, right after cleaning day, decide that you put too much bedding in the tub? i have a few who insist on pushing half of the chips out of the tub onto the ground



Edit: In response to franky's dead rat about half my females do this, if I slide out their tub very slowly, and they have larger babies, I can poke them, pet them, move their legs around, roll them over, and they dont wake up or move (no im not being mean, hehe)

[Bdadawg]

I recently thought of another one to add ...

The Olympic hopeful.

This rat (male or female) is preparing for the rat toss at the upcoming rodent olympics. Every time you try to remove them from their enclosure they will latch onto the nearest rat pup and proceed to catapult it across the tub. Some are really good at it and will toss the pup all the way out of the tub. Catching the pup before it hits the floor requires great dexterity on the part of you the trainer (whether you realize you are the trainer or not).

Bryan