Ratablog

Bruxing and Boggling

Our friend Eanna asked us about bruxing and boggling. If you're a rat owner, you've almost certainly heard and seen your rat brux, but you necessarily might not have seen him boggle...and the first time you saw it you might have thought something was wrong.

Basically, bruxing is an emotional release for your rats, like purring for a cat or laughing or crying to us humans. It's *usually* a good sign, but just as a cat might purr when in pain (or a human cry when they're happy), a rat might also brux when in pain or under stress. The rat will grind his incisors together and a sort of chittering sound will come out of him.

When a rat is really, really into a brux, you might see his eyes bulge in and out rapidly, and you'll think his eyes are ready to pop out of his head. That's a boggle and it's admittedly freaky looking. Boggling occurs because one of the jaw muscles (medial masseter muscle) loops through the eye socket, and as the muscle relaxes and contracts during severe bruxing, the eye is pushed in and out of the socket. It's usually a good thing when a rat boggles, but, as with bruxing, it's just a mirror of your rat's mood.

So, when Jimmy bruxed and boggled while the vet student was holding him, either he really liked the way she was scratching his ears, or he was really freaked out. Only Jimmy knows for sure.

There's a great video of a rat bruxing and boggling here.