Gilbert and Sullivan
Active Member
Gilbert (my male mini rex, 1 year old, neutered) freaked out in his cage today. He was not near his brother, Sullivan and they were not fighting. My boyfriend and I saw the whole thing happen (thankfully). I was watching tv and my boyfriend was stirring a pot of soup that he had walked into the living room with. Suddenly Gilbert stomped his foot and starting racing around his cage like crazy! Like, scary crazy. He was smashing into the side of the cage and litter was flying everywhere. Since we were luckily right there, we were able to stop Gilbert before he hurt himself. We took him out of his cage onto the living room floor and he raced and hid behind the tv for awhile then we got him out once he calmed down. Then he roamed around the living room for awhile, seemingly pretty normal, laying on the floor and stretching out. About a half hour later I took Gilbert and Sullivan onto the porch to groom/pet them a little. They both laid and relaxed even better than normal so I was feeling like things were better. Then I brought them back inside, they went into their cage on their own and laid down together. But then when Gilbert got down off their 2nd level and stood by the door, I moved near the cage and he kinda did a mini freak out again and raced around. If they have ever been disturbed by a noise or anything before they would normally just go into their wooden box/house to hide and feel protected. There are sometimes loud cars that go by our house that they are totally used to and don't even notice. So I guess my question is, what could possibly have freaked him out this much to be acting this way for so long, but on and off? Did he just hear something that our human ears can't hear? The only other sound we could think of was the sound of the spoon in the pot, but I feel like we have made lots of noise in the kitchen before that never bothered them (blender, etc) What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again? I am glad we were home and worry that if he did this when we weren't home would he stop freaking out and slamming into the cage before he hurt himself? We have had them both since they were babies and they have NEVER gotten freaked out like this before, so I am a bit worried. I will be monitoring them for the rest of the night.
Any insight would be appreciated!
Any insight would be appreciated!