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The first time you see a rat boggling, it can definitely be alarming. It may look like your rat is having a seizure or medical emergency when their eyeballs look like they’re going to pop right out of their head, especially when paired with a clicking, grinding sound.
As strange as it looks, rat eye boggling is normal – and a sign of a happy rat! Here’s what rat boggling and bruxing mean and why you don’t need to worry.
What Is Rat Eye Boggling?
Boggling looks like a rat’s eyes bulging, shaking, and vibrating very rapidly. The more intense the rat bruxing, or teeth grinding, the more intense the boggling. Your rat’s eyes will actually appear to bulge in and out of the sockets rapidly!
What Rat Boggling Looks Like
Why Are My Rat’s Eyes Bulging?
Rat boggling is often a sign that your rat is happy, calm, and content, much like a dog happily wagging his tail. Your rat may get the boggle eyes while enjoying a snuggle and pets, after a favorite treat, or while they’re very cozy in a hammock.
Rat eye boggling happens when your rat grinds his teeth. This pet rat behavior is called bruxism. Rat teeth grinding can be done for many reasons, including anxiety, but in a healthy rat in a comfortable environment, it’s usually a sign they’re happy and relaxed.
The reason rat boggling and teeth grinding are related has to do with your rat’s anatomy.
A rat’s masseter muscles, or the muscles that lift the lower jaw and makes the teeth bite, pass through the rat’s eye sockets and attach behind the eyes. In humans, these muscles run from the lower jaw bone to the temporal bone (the lower side of the skull by the ear) through the rear portion of the cheeks. In rats, the position of these muscles behind the eyes allows them to move their lower jaw farther forward and straight up and down.
As a side effect of this muscle position, when a rat uses its masseter muscles just behind its eyes to grind its teeth, it causes its eyeballs to vibrate and bulge in and out of the sockets.
This unique anatomy also helps rats gnaw with such force. Rats have incisors meant for gnawing and designed to wear down at an angle. They can gnaw with great strength and chew through everything from solid wood, plastic, and drywall to concrete, brick, and softer metals like 1/8” thick aluminum!
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Rat Bruxing – Teeth Grinding or Chattering
Bruxism or teeth grinding (affectionately known as bruxing) is common pet rat behavior. If you hear your rat making clicking noise, it’s likely bruxing or grinding its teeth which is normal. While rats sometimes grind their teeth due to stress or because they don’t have sufficient material to chew to grind down their teeth, it’s usually a sign of contentment.
The happy rat noises of bruxing often accompany boggling. The muscles used to move their jaw up and down while bruxing runs behind their eyes and causes their eyes to vibrate or boggle rapidly.
Is Rat Boggling a Sign of Stress?
A boggling, bruxing rat is usually a happy rat. However, it can be done to self-soothe if they are stressed, sick, in pain, or agitated.
If you notice rat chattering and boggling, you can assess their overall health and environment to make sure it’s a sign of contentment. If they are lethargic, losing weight, hunched over, or have fluffed-up fur, it may be a sign they’re in pain or sick and bruxing to self-soothe. This may be a sign it’s time to visit the vet.
Is Rat Chattering a Happy Sound?
Like boggling, bruxing is usually the sound of a happy rat. However, it’s important to know the difference in rat sounds. Bruxing happens when your rat grinds its incisors against each other. If you hear rat chattering noises that are sharper and may sound more like clicking, cracking, or wheezing, it may be a sign of a respiratory illness. Any sounds while your rat is simply breathing, including snuffling or high-pitched squeaky sounds, point toward a respiratory problem.
