Breathing?

[Hales80]

Hello again
What is normal for rat breathing? I have noticed when the girls are asleep I can see their chests going up and down really fast. Is this normal? What do your rats do as I have nothing to compare to as these girls are my first rats?
ta
Hales

[Australian Rat Forum]

My rats sometimes breath really fast when they are sleeping.
I think it depends on what they are dreaming about, how warm or cold it is at the time, and maybe other factors to.

I dont think its anything to worry about.

[Hales80]

thanks for that, I was starting to think its just normal for rats, they seem happy and healthy so no need for worry.
Ta
Hales

[ashana]

I think it is fairly normal, our breathing also changes when we are asleep.
Being that rats possibly dream etc a faster breathing rate during dream sleep would be quite normal.

Hope this helps
Aimee

[littleraton]

I've not noticed my rats breathing rate increase while they're sleeping, though I would agree Nathan - dreams and temperature would make an impact on heart and breathing rate certainly.

My youngest rat does tend to breath faster than my older boy so I imagine, as others have said, it's not anything to worry about. However, keep an eye open for any other symptoms of breathing problems, just in case.

little raton

[rach]

Wow.... I have never paid that much attention to their breathing. When I fist got my boys and would have them out of the cage their breathing would increase, but I think that was just fear from being handled. I will have to pay attention though and see what happens.
They're breathing would be faster than ours, but maybe dreams (do they really dream?!) would affect it too

[wart]

I was fortunate enough to see one of my rats dream once This was a few years ago when I owned females.

She was fast asleep in her cage, and all of a sudden she started bruxing and boggling.
It was rather cute She must have been dreaming of something nice

This was the same rat who attacked me when I went to pick her up while she was in a deep sleep. She thought something was attacking her and fought back accordingly. After the incident, we were both shaken.
But it was my fault. She was only acting on instinct. We remained best of friends til her death

Zoe

[Australian Rat Forum]

I've seen my rats dreaming

I've watched their little front paws moving as if they were running and I've seen them twitching and I've seen the brux/boggle dreams as well.

Its really amazing and I always wonder just what they are dreaming about.

;D

One time when Vash was dreaming and looked like he was running, I had the lyrics of the song born free going around in my head, as I imagined he was dreaming of running free in the wild, of course the wild was the african bush, and so I could see Vash running through teh african bush as if he was a lion only rat sized.

Well hey if you dont have a good imagination what do you have. Ok I really need to stop reading so much.

[littleraton]

that's a wonderful image in my mind!