Strange question...

[Acquien]

My rats are sat in their hammock they look cosy but they're not sleeping, they're just staring at me on my computer. Is this strange? One of them especially just sits and stares at me a lot. (They haven't been handled much, we just adopted them.) I can't tell, I'm just worried. Seems silly I know..

[Isamurat]

There just watching you, it's perfectly normal, your new and interesting to them.

Nice to see someone else form the UK, have you discovered lincoln rat rescue yet? One of my breeding team lives in lincoln too, we're hoping to have a show there again one day, if we can get enough local interest.

[Acquien]

I'm glad that's what it is and they're not as scared as they were before. Oh my god! I haven't! Tell me more! Breeding team? Oh I'm very excited now I'd definitely go to a show!

[Run Computers]

Rat's eyesight is the least effective of their senses so they often stair and move their heads back and forth to get a better view of movement.

They are just sizing up their new owner

[unlikelyfather]

When he can't come out and play, Ras lays in his hammock and watches the entire room. It's quite cute. I often stop whatever I am doing at the time to give him a head skritch or talk to him.

Another cute thing is when they fall asleep on you and flop out. Ras does this when curled up in my sleeve or if I rub his neck and ears long enough. It's cute when they fall deep asleep, go dead weight, and get floppy.

You'll find that your babies have a lot of interesting habits.

[Rat Daddy]

New rats that haven't been handled much yet? Why? My newest rat was home playing with us and our old rat for about 7 hours before she even saw her cage. As to bad eyesight it's hit and miss, when she was young my old girl could recognize people she knew from over 50 feet away. But I've had rats that couldn't do nearly that. If your ratties confidently traverse the open spaces in your house and elsewhere they probably have good eyesight. If they follow the walls you can pretty much assume they don't.

[glehman]

I have two new rats that we got to replace the two that passed away recently and now that they've accepted that I'm not here to eat them (but not willing to trust me yet) all they do is stare at me. Luna and Winter both stare at me constantly when I'm in their room on the computer. Tipsy (the oldest) stares at me too, but it's more of a "How dare you be sitting there and NOT have me out mom?" And then she pouts where she knows I can see her. I get the vibe that some rats just stare.

[Rat Daddy]

You've got it strait, glehman... your ratties are staring at you and asking to come out and play with you... Rats are smart metacognative creatures, if they could they would say let me out and play in words, but not knowing what else to do they just stare and wait patiently for their bestest new friend to come and play with them. Eventually they will learn to jump up against the cage and be more noticable to you.

[Munchie]

My girls do that, and they're very used to me Normally it' a 'how dare you ignore us! Look how cute we are! Let us out to play!' But sometimes they just genuinely seem content to sit and stare at me and don't want to come out at all... Ratty TV anyone?

[Cupcake&Candy]

Ya know, since rats are such intelligent creatures it doesn't surprise me that they enjoy watching things/people/other animals intently. Perhaps they are studying your body language, your behavior, what YOU are paying attention to. Who really knows? However, I'm pretty sure that when my dogs used to stare it was cuz they were waiting for someone to drop a steak.