My baby rat twitching and squeaking??

Question

My baby male dumbo rat (6 months old) sort of twitches and makes a quiet squeaky noise when hes asleep. Hes perfectly healthy and never does it when hes awake.

Do you think hes dreaming? (if so I wonder what about lol)

I remember my dog used to do something similar her legs used to twitch and she used to make noises..like she was running through a field. :D

Can rats dream?

Answer 1

All animals dream. It's the REM sleep (the stage of sleep in which you dream) that provides you with rest. Without this stage you wake up and feel like you've never slept. They've done scientific studies in the past that proved that animals dreamed by doing brain wave tests while they slept. They had the same type of patterns that we humans do when we dream.

When you dream, you typically dream of things that you have seen before, it might be jumbled images of different things, but it's all stuff that you have seen. This would be the same for the rat, or the dog, so it is believed that most animals dream of their basic survival functions because that is all they know. They are likely either dreaming that they are foraging for food, searching for or creating a nest, cleaning themselves, playing, mating, or running from a predator. Other than sleeping, this is about all they are exposed to, so it's likely they are dreaming about one of thise things.

It is quite cute to watch an animal dream. You can't help but to wonder what is going through it's little head...lol.

I hope this answered your question.

Answer 2

thats normal its dreaming my dog does it he barks quietly it so funny to listen to

Answer 3

my hamster does that all the time!

he is just dreaming..or nighmaring...lol :)

Answer 4

Lots of animals seem to do this when theyre sleeping and I believe they can dream! Dogs are a good example of this - often trying to run in their sleep haha.

A lot of my baby rats do this also, and they are all perfectly healthy so theres nothing to worry about. Its rather cute isnt it! =)