I wanted to post this in the Rat Behavior thread, but I don't have permission to do that yet. Hopefully enough people will see this!
A little backstory, I got my rats last night (about 14 hours ago). Two girls, five or six weeks old. They were completely fine yesterday. Eating, playing, napping, cleaning each other. They were active at night, and when I woke them up this morning, everything was dandy. I offered them my hood (had my hoodie on backwards) and they climbed in. They had a blast meeting my brother, and crawled all over me while I made myself (and them) some breakfast.
They were sitting on my counter, acting completely normal, but just before they could eat, my cat hopped onto the counter with them. I didn't see her coming, she came from the other side. I wasn't worried because I'd had a hamster before, and she would cuddle with my cat; harmless girl. The rats, however, froze. They were shaking and their whiskers were twitching wildly, but otherwise they weren't moving at all. My cat sniffed them from a foot away for about 5 seconds, then I grabbed her and put her down; she wandered away.
Now, I put my ratties back in my hood, and took my food upstairs. They stayed in the hood, still not moving at all. I tried playing with them, covering them in a blanket, offering them hard boiled eggs, but all they would do is either snuggle closer to me, or not move. Eventually I gave up and put them back in their cage, thinking that in a little while they would no longer be able to sustain that fear, and would return to normal. Half an hour later I checked on them to see them clinging to the top right corner of their cage, the darkest one. They were literally holding on to the bars and clinging, not moving one bit. I pulled them off of the bars and put them in their smallest, darkest hammock, they snuggled together, and have not moved a muscle since.
I'm really worried about them. The cat isn't in the room with them, and would never even harm them, but they can't seem to shake off this fear. They're not afraid of me but it seems like they've gone into shock or something
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Can I do anything to help my little ratties? Have I scarred them by not making sure to keep my cat away from them? It's only their first real day here, but they were so, so good before! They slept on me and trusted me right away but I feel like I ruined that now D:
A little backstory, I got my rats last night (about 14 hours ago). Two girls, five or six weeks old. They were completely fine yesterday. Eating, playing, napping, cleaning each other. They were active at night, and when I woke them up this morning, everything was dandy. I offered them my hood (had my hoodie on backwards) and they climbed in. They had a blast meeting my brother, and crawled all over me while I made myself (and them) some breakfast.
They were sitting on my counter, acting completely normal, but just before they could eat, my cat hopped onto the counter with them. I didn't see her coming, she came from the other side. I wasn't worried because I'd had a hamster before, and she would cuddle with my cat; harmless girl. The rats, however, froze. They were shaking and their whiskers were twitching wildly, but otherwise they weren't moving at all. My cat sniffed them from a foot away for about 5 seconds, then I grabbed her and put her down; she wandered away.
Now, I put my ratties back in my hood, and took my food upstairs. They stayed in the hood, still not moving at all. I tried playing with them, covering them in a blanket, offering them hard boiled eggs, but all they would do is either snuggle closer to me, or not move. Eventually I gave up and put them back in their cage, thinking that in a little while they would no longer be able to sustain that fear, and would return to normal. Half an hour later I checked on them to see them clinging to the top right corner of their cage, the darkest one. They were literally holding on to the bars and clinging, not moving one bit. I pulled them off of the bars and put them in their smallest, darkest hammock, they snuggled together, and have not moved a muscle since.
I'm really worried about them. The cat isn't in the room with them, and would never even harm them, but they can't seem to shake off this fear. They're not afraid of me but it seems like they've gone into shock or something
