Agouti Behaviour Observation or just coincidence?

[mercurydust]

my Hnery is an agouti berk, and a rat from h@*# !
he pees on everything, bites, hisses, won't accept any new rats... litlle TERD head!

now all that said, he's going for a nueter ASAP!

LMAO at 'terd head'! :laugh4: Thats too funny, you have a ratty rebel. Our little Lucy isn't agressive at all...she is the one the other girls pick on because she is an easy target. She loves to get scritched behind the ears and sometimes lets me pet her butt....and she will let me hold her for a second or two before recoiling like a tightly tensioned spring-I always have one hand gripping the base of her tail so she doesn't fall. If I am lucky I get in a belly kiss or tummy rasberry before I have to out her down before she scratched the pooh outta me. It's funny, after I rasberry her tummy she stops squirming and just looks at me as if to say...'What the hell was all that about?' :stickpoke:

 

[lilratsy43]

I have an agouti hooded, she is 2 years old and for as long as I have had her she has had no interest in being held. She will shoulder ride and come up for scritches every once in a while but otherwise she just wants to do what ever she wants to do!!!

It could definately have something to do with genetics...I like moons explaination as well.

 

[lilratsy43]

Henry's mum: You didn't have that problem with him before, did you? Is he like that to you as well or just other rats? I think its great you are going to be able to have him neutered!

I have 4 boys all friendly to me, but the only two that live together have been together since they were babies...I will be looking to do some snipping too, as soon as I can afford it! This way I know I did everything in my power to get them to live happily together...

 

[OldsGal]

I know this thread is Very Very old but I ran across something recently that reminded me of this thread and wanted to post it to get your opinions on this matter. Seems according to this that there truly might be something behind the agouti coloring that does or could potentially make them a bit off balanced in the behavoiur department. We still are getting very unsocial agoutis through the rescue on a consistent basis. And right now I have 9 litters of babies here. One of those litters is ALL agouti either berk, veriberk or hooded. I have been socializing all 9 litters the same. All of the other litters consist of beige, black, PEWs...Basically all other color other than Agouti. All of the other litters are all very curious outgoing and social. This Agouti litter on the other hand cowers together when I come near the cage. They want nothing to do with me. They spring out of my hands in fear. Even when I bring food they cower for a good long time before I leave before they will come eat it. The other litters swarm me when I bring food. I can barely get the bowls down in the cage before someone jumps into it. So I am truly just wondering if there couldn't be something more to this. In any event here is the link:

http://www.ratbehavior.org/ExperimentalCoatTempmt.htm

 

[jorats]

It's not the colour, it's mom. Mom is teaching those babies to be scared and antisocial. The sooner you get mom away from them, the sooner you can teach them to trust you.
I've got a few agoutis here and they are amazing!! They are my little puppies. Thinking back, all my agoutis were fun and sweet. But I've had plenty of beiges and black hoodies that needed some work in socializing.

 

[PitLuvs]

Ive had 6 Agouti selfs, 2 agouti hoodeds and an agouti capped. ALL were AMAZING rats who loved to be cuddled, picked up and gave kisses. My problem is black hooded rats, they just hate me I had one boy who was sweet as kind with my ex, and nearly took my finger off. Stinkin bugger, cage cleaning time was interesting. Even Sam and Dean hate me, but I loves them.

 

[rodentmama]

I can't say about other rats but Moe is our agouti hooded and he is a very tense boy. He's always been. Now I'm not sure of his upbringing, I bought him in a petstore in a moment of weakness to just get ANY rat to keep Mickey company after the other three cagemates died. And Moe was alone in a little cage so he wasn't being socialized during his time at the store. It is a petstore that specializes in reptiles too, so one has to wonder if he was considered pet or snack.

He's the only one I have who throws out his legs when picked up as if he has to find something to hold onto. He also isn't overly friendly with other rats but it in with Lucy who is a spayed girl and he's ok with, although he does harrass her at times wanting to mount her.

He doesn't ever bite me or get mean with me but I get the feeling that he is just as happy on his own as with humans.

 

[OldsGal]

It's not the colour, it's mom. Mom is teaching those babies to be scared and antisocial. The sooner you get mom away from them, the sooner you can teach them to trust you.
I've got a few agoutis here and they are amazing!! They are my little puppies. Thinking back, all my agoutis were fun and sweet. But I've had plenty of beiges and black hoodies that needed some work in socializing.

Normally I would agree with this theory as I have had moms do this to me in the past. But this mom could care less that I play with her babies right with her still in the cage. She is friendly and doesn't mind being handled. She is a nice good mom. She isn't over protective of them and she has never tried to bite me. She is happy to sit on my shoulder and watch me play with them.

I don't know. That article has some good points in it that make sense. I am not saying that article is the end all to the topic but gosh how can you argue with it. It isn't saying that Agoutis can't be sweet love bugs it is just saying that it is harder for them to be sweet love bugs.

Staci

 

[jorats]

Oops... I totally missed the link of the article.
It does make a lot of sense. I've been very lucky then.

 

[Little_Vixen]

I agree on the behavioral pattern due to the previous breeding in the lines. It may be that mommy is one of few that socialized well while the babies could carry that instinct or behavior passed down from previous generations. It's an interesting thought but I'd probably hate to see a study done on it because if we had, then we would have agoutis and other rats that we would socialize and work with, while we would have another group of agoutis and other colors that we wouldn't. And then we would have to analyze the next generations of rats from these groups to see if there was a link between having little socialization to trying to socialize the babies or if there were any behaviors more noted in the case of socialized vs. non socialized. I would die of frustration not being able to socialize with them. I can see how it would make sense though and I believe that could be a possibility when it comes to the behavior.

I can't look at the link just now but I'll take a look during my break at work I love seeing posties like this, they really get you thinking