Sorry about the video playing in the background but Tobias just had a rinse in the sink with warm water and feels clean and we are having some one on one time.

Omg he is so happy!!

LOOK HOW HAPPY HE IS?!

They’ve never had that happen before

I know he's probably traumatized and tries to ignore his natural instincts, but I really wish people wrote Splinter taking advantage of his rat features more often. Rat noses and ears are insanely sensitive. He could detect more with whiskers alone than most humans could with all their senses.

I wanna hear him squeak, and I don't mean teeny tiny cute squeaks, but an actually angry rat squeak is scary can you imagine how terrifying it would be coming out of a furious Splinter with tail up and fur bristling and Looming over his enemy? Maybe it's just bcz I've had pet rats and am obsessed with their natural behavior but I wanna see him get emotional enough to ignore his human sensibilities and just threaten some idiot with a bunch of rat behaviors

gonna start saying “im literally bruxing and boggling” whenever im excited/happy about something

scrappy boggling his little brains out

my rats have NO idea how much i love them and that their memory will remain with me for x34587534 times their lifetimes

That post about rats dancing to the beat of music just reminded me of a rat I had in high school who used to brux and boggle his eyes in pure happiness whenever I played green day or mcr

A pop-punk connoisseur

rats are sooo. one of the most animals ever

A random thought had me thinking.

I know the ghouls are often portrayed as cat like but what if some of them are also rat like (with regards to noises)?

i love rats!!! i love the way they clean faces when they feel unsure of themselves. i love the way they hold food in their little hands as they nibble on it. i love how they sometimes do little hops when they run. i love how they brux and boggle when they're happy. i love how silly but dramatic they look when play fighting. i love how they sniff and carefully nibble on things to inspect them. i love how their noses and ears get pink when they feel warm and cozy. i love how they stretch to reach high places. i love how they give me little kissies. i love when they stand on their hind legs and smell the air. i love how their tails move behind them for balance. i love how their lower lip droops if they're sleepy. i love that each rat has their own personality and quirks that make them themselves. I LOVE RATS

crunchy old man after having a large penis plug removed and squirting pee on me 💕

so I held my rattata today and she just. started bulging out her eyes. I promptly put her back on the table. This only happens when I pick her up. What do

it means she's happy to be with you! that behavior is called boggling, and while a bit weird to look at, context tells me your rattata is probably just showing she's relaxed and content in your hands. rattata grind their teeth when they're happy, and because of the unique muscular structure in their head (which is what gives them the strength to bite through wood and use moves like hyper fang), this teeth grinding- called bruxing- can cause their eyes to kind of pop in and out.

sometimes rattata will grind their teeth out of pain or stress, so boggling isn't always good- but if you're letting her choose to go into your hand and she isn't showing other signs of stress, then this probably means she's happy.

fun fact: bruxish also do this same behavior, but because they don't have the same muscular structure, their eyes don't pop out when they do it!

When rats are happy they grind their front teeth. This called bruxing. However because their jaw muscles are just below their eyes, more aggressive bruxing rapidly pushes their eyes in and out of their sockets. That’s called boggling. It’s cute, at least when you know what it is. Brick Boggles. Big Boggle Baby.

YES i love rats so much and brick absolutely boggles. I even had a thought (weeks ago) to draw out peppino seeing it for the first time and thinking brick is DYING 😭

Gustavo leaves Brick in his care for just one(1) hour and Peppino is like ‘please do not leave this beast with me, what if it needs something? What if it eats something its not supposed to eat? What if it chokes and dies a-and explodes-‘ and Gustavo is like u worry too much my friend :) Ill be back soon! Only an hour! 👍🏾 So hes left with this Beast as hes closing up shop for the day 😭

And Brick isnt the Most friendly and hes kind of Huge and Peppino really doesnt like being in his Presence so hes like 🧍 watching Brick from the back of the pizzeria. Because thats a fucking BEAST in his SHOP! He cannot stress this enough; a BEAST. And hes responsible for it ! Gus had to beat that thing into submission for some alpha pack leader respect shit! Thats scary! WILD ANIMALS like lions and hyenas or whatever do that! Not rats!! 😭😭

Hes wiping down the counters and when turns around to rinse off the rag, Brick is hovering over him. And he has no shame in admitting this; he screams. Thats like a bear closing the gap of an entire storefront in less than a second without a single sound made 😭 and now its SNUFFLING him and hes like im going to fucking pass away.

“I dont have anything on me you fucking rat- GO AWAY-” but hes got his hands balled up into fists against his chest and hes shaking bc Brick wont stop being Nosy. And now the fuckers bunting at his fist and hes like ‘what does that fucking MEAN do you want to fight??? I dont want to fight you, I really dont; I really really dont. You can be alpha or whatever i dont care’ 😭😭

But brick is snuffling his hand and trying to pry it open and hes like. Do you want me to fucking pet you??? And he tentatively reaches out to pet Brick, only to pull away SHARPLY when Brick nibbles at his hand. Like u little bitch u did you just bite me??? But theres no marks…and after a minute of Peppino not moving an inch, this fucking BEAST decides to use his hands to GRAB Peppinos hand, and guide it to his muzzle. As if to say ‘this, i want this! I want you to do this!’

So Peppino reluctantly caves in bc hes fucking TRAPPED between a bear rat beast and his countertop. Bricks fur is oddly sleek, yet easy to bristle when he pets their face. Running his thumb against the base of his whiskers feels Weird but Brick SEEMS content. Hes like ‘yeah…o-okay. Okay…! Yeah! O-okay; im ‘a not dead! :)’

And then bricks eyes start wobbling out of control; theyre popping in and out of his head and Peppino GRIPS this poor rats face hes like WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING DOING? DYING? ARE YOU DYING RIGHT NOW????! He didnt notice it before but NOW hes hearing this odd grinding sound and Peppino is like this fucking thing is breaking down right in front of me 😭 But despite the roughness, Brick is still staring at him, eyes wobbling furiously

Gustavo comes back to what LOOKS like Peppino (gently) holding Bricks face while Brick boggles, and hes like ‘OH look at that! Brick looks pretty happy, my friend :)’

And Peppino is like (face red; eyes wide) WHAT?? THIS ISNT A STROKE ??!

🐀 HAPPY WORLD RAT DAY! 🐀

Thanks to all our precious rat friends for the kisses, cuddles, boggles, bruxes, popcorn zoomies, garbage disposal services, speed holes in all our textiles and SO MANY laughs! Big cheers to these little weirdos who have made our lives brighter! 💜

do the rats in this universe boggle? or has that trait been lost over time?

Hi anony-mouse,

Great question! Here's the long answer:

In the Theratpy Universe, only mice are able to boggle! If witness to it, rats typically find it freaky when they do. Boggling was lost to rats with the extinction of their most recent evolutionary predecessor, rattus norvegicus, as they learned language and other more complex ways to communicate emotion than bruxing and boggling. All rats we see now are rattus norvegicus domestica. They have little need to ever brux intensely, and even if they did, their eyes aren't affected by teeth grinding enough that the pressure would cause a notable difference.

Some rats are, however, able to slit their pupils and irises for small periods of time, about as common as being able to whistle (15-20%). Ratticus is one of those individuals, although his is usually involuntary unless he's trying very hard to be Scarie(tm). Even fewer rats can hold them slitted for longer than a couple of seconds, though in rare cases they can get stuck as slits permanently :x Depending on where a rat grew up, this behavior is called snake eyes or X eyes. Mice are not able to do this.

The short answer is, rats do not boggle! This trait has indeed been lost over time :) Hope this helps!

— ♡ Melby, creator of Theratpy

Examples of snake eyes: