I'm scared

I gently touched his back and he flipped out and started... hissing? At me and I don't know what to do. I want to see if giving him some food or something would calm him down but I'm afraid hand feeding will turn into him lashing out and biting me and I have no clue where his bowl went in the cage and I don't want to dig for it in fear of upsetting him more

Hes still breathing pretty heavily and isn't moving. I tried to feed him some applesauce but he's not interested at all

Nothing have been out of the norm lately. He's been eating and drinking fine. He's been as active as he normally is.

Sounds like a possible seizure, I would take him to the vet.

Good luck with him.

It is very rare for rats to maintain a fear response for more than 20 minutes. Is it possible he saw or heard something outside that frightened him? Sometimes rats do show a fear response when we don't see or hear anything to cause it. I have noticed that sometimes our own fear response to our pet's fear can magnify their fear, so try to be calm. I expect he has quieted some by now, but if he still seems skittish, perhaps it would be a good idea to close any open curtains and try to dim the light around him for awhile.

You saw it and we didn't, but if you think there is any chance it was a seizure, you should call a vet, as mimsy suggests.

He seems to be doing better. I decided it might be best to leave him alone for a bit to calm down so I went to take a shower. When I came back he had moved into his igloo and when I tried to feed him more applesauce he ate it. So he seems to be doing a lot better. He is responsive and acting normal.

As far as I am aware there was nothing around that could of frightened him.

How are things now? My girls become frightened when they hear birds outside, maybe something like that happened?