scratching the ground?

[TheHermit]

Google won't help me, keeps giving me links for mite issues.

Penny has a new hobby - scratching the ground. She does this weird shuffle-scratch with her front feet on the bottom of her cage, on blankets, on my bed, on everything, and randomly. She looks like a dog trying to dig a hole, and she does it for maybe two seconds then moves on. She also stares intensely at the spot she's scratching. She's NEVER been one to be stressed out, in fact she's the one that stresses everyone else out - could this be her single symptom of stress? She doesn't show any others. Is it a territory thing? I'm really confused, I've never seen a rat do this before and she does it pretty often.

Edit: she's also always had a wee bit of a head tilt. Not all the time, just if she's around eye-level and she stops to stare at you her head tilts kind of. Could the scratching be a neuro symptom?

 

[jorats]

She's being a dominant girl. When they do the digging, they are actually marking the area.

 

[TheHermit]

She's being a dominant girl. When they do the digging, they are actually marking the area.

Ah that makes a ton of sense. Thank you!

 

[Kitsa]

Well I'm glad you posted this. One of my rats does that but I just figured it was a ratty thing and never worried but its nice to know what he's doing.

 

[hopefloats]

boys do it more i think. I have tons of boys who do it, only one girls, she is complete with side rubbing and all. Before I started blocking the cage from the other rats that are out, since it was a fun game to jump on their cage since I have boys out and this cage is girls and boys. I would have my 4 boys in that cage and Bindi, all would be there slapping the rats that jumped up, they would also do their little foot stomping.