obsessive chewing after neuter

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H

hprats

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I'm not too worried about this, because it is after a surgery and I know there are drugs involved...

I just wonder if any one else has had a rat do this...
Since I picked Fred up, he has not stopped chewing on the fleece in his carrier.

3 hours straight and nothing can distract him.
 
my girl lucy did it till midnight. If she wasnt chewing stuff, she would walk around with a piece of her litter in her mouth :) Give him a piece of wood or something to gnaw on sometimes it helps them stop chewing on fabric. PICA is not a fun thing with rats. it usually stops after a while. That med can be a bugger though.
 
ABSOLUTELY had this once before. My boy, Pip, started chewing on anything and everything the SECOND we got home. I could offer him food, treats, ANYTHING, and he would either take it and eat it and go RIGHT BACK to doing the chewing, or he'd just ignore it and keep going. He would chew on whatever was underneath him -- my shirt if I were holding him, a fleece blanket, the cage liner, my pillow.... He wouldn't actually chew holes in it, but he'd sort of 'pluck' fabric off until he had a mouthful and then he'd spit it out and keep going. It continued well into the night and when I woke up in the morning he had stopped.

His little buddy Perceus did it as well, but he wasn't as obsessive as Pip had been about it(I could distract him and/or he'd sit and watch stuff in between chew fests).

Better to chew fabric than to chew incisions. :) He'll be fine by the morn, don't worry!
 
Yep, he has stopped.

It was just so weird, I've never seen any of my pets so focused on anything. I even stuck him on the couch, and usually he'd jump off, but he just sat chewing fleece forevever. I gave him a wood chew but he preferred the fleece.

I'm glad to hear he isn't totally alone in this though.
 
I will assume he was given buprenorphine after surgery, and this is the opiate that often causes pica behaviour in rats. Once the pain med has worn off, then the chewing stops :)
 

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