[elliotulysses]

I know intact female go through heat cycles quite frequently, but is nesting a part of it at all? This morning I woke up to the girls having moved bedding up to the top level where the food bowl is. Should I not be worried? There is no chance for an accidental pregnancy and none of the girls are looking strange. I just have never encountered this before.

 

[Nieve5552]

I think its normal, my boys have displayed some sort of nesting behavior too haha
Especially Wolf loves to gather bits of fleece from every part of the cage and shove them into their main sleeping area (the igloo on the top level) and spread them out nicely. He also sometimes grabs paper, receipt paper and once even some plastic bag (I confiscated the receipt papers and plastic bag, since the receipt papers have carcinogenic chemicals and plastic bag can choke them) while free ranging and tries to drag them into the cage and to the igloo. Ive also seen my boys gather up some wood bedding (when I used aspen), shove some into their little mouths and carry it to the igloo to cover the igloo floor.

I think that they do this because either 1. They want comfy and squishy pile of things to sleep on, 2. They are lazy boys who pee in the igloo and want absorbent things to soak up their pee, even though they are litter trained, 3. They want to just fill up their igloo with materials to cover themselves in and sleep under, especially because the igloo is not very good at blocking out the light and is too bright in there.

I havent seen any nesting behavior lately, since I made them a little hidey-hole using cut up cardboard box which blocks out the light very effectively. This doesnt mean the number 1 and 2 wouldnt be true though

 

[461537]

Yeah, I've seen this with my two girls - first they gnawed through all the ropes holding up their hammock and then next night they dragged the hammock down next to a big pile of food that they had been gathering from the food tray on the level above. I thought they might have been a couple of reincarnated interior design students to start with, but they seem to just be setting things up the way they want them, and the hammock must have just been in the wrong place in the grand rattie plan. Looking at this logically, it could be seen as a good sign - they are taking ownership of their environment.

 

[KatnissRat]

If their hidey-igloo is not warm enough, my girls will drag bedding into it.
They also love old capri-sun boxes and will turn the box on its side and drag bedding and food into it.
I'v found it's just a quirk of rats to move stuff to where they want it, and if they want their food bowl on the bottom level of the cage instead they will drag the heavy bowl down all 3 ramps without stopping.