So I've owned boys almost exclusively over the past few years, so this might be a dumb question.
I have two girls and a boy as of now (neutered of course!) and when my girls go into heat, they poof up their fur!
I've never seen this before in rats that weren't distressed in some way, and my vet gave them the all clear health wise. I poke them and prod them when they are poofy to make sure nothing hurts, but it's not so easy to hold down a girl in heat even for a couple of seconds.
My boy lives in the exact same cage conditions and hasn't poofed his fur once since I got him. If it was environmental, surely it would affect him too.
I've just never seen this before, is this behaviour normal?
I have two girls and a boy as of now (neutered of course!) and when my girls go into heat, they poof up their fur!
I've never seen this before in rats that weren't distressed in some way, and my vet gave them the all clear health wise. I poke them and prod them when they are poofy to make sure nothing hurts, but it's not so easy to hold down a girl in heat even for a couple of seconds.
My boy lives in the exact same cage conditions and hasn't poofed his fur once since I got him. If it was environmental, surely it would affect him too.
I've just never seen this before, is this behaviour normal?