Question on tail-flick

[Unepuce]

Hi guys,

One of my rats recently started "tail-flicking". He would bang his tails around his quickly for about 2 secondes and then run to a save place and lick it. I can't find anything on the Net on this subject besides pain experiments made on rats :rant: and would like to know if any of you have an explanation for this. I believe this reaction is caused by pain, but it also might be behavioral - he's a very nervous rat with a blurry past of being aggressive towards other rats and people (took care of most of the problem by having him neutered - no choice anyway as he now lives with 3 girls). He is now a bit over one year old (was neutered at approximately 8 months).

Hope someone can help!

Unepuce

 

[Cassandra]

I found this little bit of info when one of my girls started doing it-
''Tail waving – a sign of heightened excitement or aggression. Generally seen in rats that are angry or threatened, but also reported in rats that are excited (such as during mating).''
My girl does it a bit during free range time and if she gets something really yummy to eat. So hers would be tail wagging from being excited as she's really not an aggressive rat.
He might be feeling threatened?

 

Cassandra took the words right out of my mouth, haha

 

[Unepuce]

Hum... He usually does it when he is alone. He is still a bit aggressive - mostly with my older and quiet other boy (he actually scares Piccolo to death, except when they're sleeping cheek to cheek in the hammock - go figure...). Maybe he isolates himself when he feels threatened and then his tail does its thing... He is a VERY nervous rat, but gets along okay with his roommates, except for his occasional fights with Piccolo and one of the girls, that keeps trying to dominate him (my smallest rat going agains my biggest... again, go figure!).

I don't want to separate them eventhough I now feel I should maybe do it... My four others have been together for a long long time and I refuse to isolate him in a separate cage. Any tought on how I could maybe help him get over his nervousness?

 

How old is he?

 

[jorats]

Don't let the tail wagging make you think that he is being aggressive. Anything can set a rat off, even rough playing.
He's probably just dealing with his anxiety that way.
If he's not attacking the buddies and making them bleed, then I'd leave them together.

 

[Unepuce]

Ratty Momma, my Pollux is a bit over one year old - can't know for sure as I adopted him after he was brought back, but my contact at my petshop remembered when him and his brother first came in and that was coherent with my evaluation of his age - about 8 month-old at the time.

Jorats, thanks for the reassuring thought. I can't stand the idea of keeping rats isolated, even when it's for their own good! He is attacking his friends, but I feel this is mostly "domination"-related - he was neutered late in life and he was introduced into a home with with 3 girls and another boy... I just wish I could ease him into becoming as laid back as my Piccolo is...

 

[blytherue]

My Grady boy did this a lot when I first got him and was doing intros, but he grew out of it within a couple weeks. I think it was nervousness with him, he was alone before he met them. Hopefully once your guy gets used to his new situation, he'll calm down a bit!

 

[Rattus]

My boy Constantine flicks his tail a lot, its so cute. His is from excitement. Everytime hes out of his cage and playing he has his seconds of tail flicking lol

 

[Argent]

Hugo often tail-flicks when I'm scritching him in the right spot - he loves it and looks so happy! Though recently him and Rufus had a major falling out and while I was trying to supervise them while they got it out of their systems, they were rattling tails at each other in a threatening manner, you can completely see the difference even though it's the same action.