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Scent Marking The brown rat uses scent marking as a means of communication. Small droplets and thin streams of chemically enriched urine are piped and smeared over surfaces (the logo to this website being one of them) and objects as it travels. The same individual and other rats that 'catch' the scent will display a response based on the urine content and/or other surrounding stimulus. Urine marking as a form of scent marking serves many purposes for the brown rat but the purpose of marking territory, that is so common within the animal kingdom, is still unclear. Studies have shown that in some cases male brown rats are attracted to another male brown rat's urine marking while other studies display the opposite. The content of the rat's urine is like a business card. Amongst the many identifiers, it tells other rats its sex, status, age, reproductive readiness and availability, mood, attractiveness, social bond, and identity. Male brown rats scent mark more than female brown rats and will increase marking in the presence of a receptive female. Female brown rats will scent mark more at a certain period in their 4 day ovulatory cycle as a message that they are about to be at their most fertile. In addition to these social signals, scent marking also sends out messages about the environment. The brown rat will scent mark their runs and familiar habitat that they walk over. We can consider this behaviour as a form of directional marking in the same way humans may use visual directional cues such as directories and landmarks. This directional marking also relates to a food source where the brown rat will scent mark both around and on food items. New objects and clean familiar objects will also be scent marked and don't pet rat owners know about that! Scent marking is a behaviour that pet rat owners will just have to accept as something their rats do. They will mark your hands, your clothes, their cage, their bedding, their food, the floor, the furniture, your computer keyboard...everything. In the picture below Sally has just marked on Rena's head. This was their first day together on the first day I brought them home.
Once a pet rat owner releases their rats from their cage it is common for the rats to go through an initial check of familiar areas. If you have a new object on the floor, such as a book or piece of clothing, don't be surprised if it gets scampered over and scent marked. After going through their familiar area checking procedure they'll undoubtedly turn their attention on you. Your clean hands and clothes will be the next thing to be scent marked and they'll often stop and have a good sniff of fresh urine as they make a second pass over a marked area. The video below shows scent marking in full effect. While males are known to mark more frequently than females you'll see that females do a pretty good job.
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