Are Pet Rats Quiet? (Day And Night)

When thinking about getting pet rats, a common question is if pet rats are quiet, both during the day and night. This is something very important to know, especially if you live in an apartment where loud noises might prove to be a problem.

Some people are also very sensitive to noise and might prefer quieter pets. It’s all a matter of preference and the amount of noise a pet does can be very important when bringing them home!

Are pet rats quiet? Yes! Generally speaking, pet rats are probably the kind of pet that will make less noise. Since they’re nocturnal, they’ll be sleeping most of the day without making any noise. During the night they’re more active, but still very quiet.

There’s a lot more to know about this matter! Some of them are just curious facts, others can be very important to you when making the decision of getting some rodent friends to keep you company.

In this article, I’ll talk about how much noise a pet rat will make during the day and night. As well as some tips to help you reduce any noise that might disturb you, so keep reading!

Pet Rats Noise During The Day

Pet rats are usually nocturnal. This means that during the day, they’ll be mostly sleeping. You won’t hear much noise from them, save for the occasional trip to the bathroom or moving to another sleeping space.

In a way, you won’t have much interaction with your rodent friends during the day. However, pet rats can and will change their schedules to be able to interact with their owners. This means, if you’re mostly at home during the day or in the afternoon, they’ll be awake at the times you’re there.

We work from home and tend to go to bed pretty late, so our girls usually sleep during the day and then around 7 pm they start to be more active, moving and playing around!

A good trick to convince your pet rats to adjust their schedule is by feeding them earlier. Let’s say you arrive home at around 5 pm. If you start giving them food at that time, they’ll know that it’s dinner time and will start waking up and be active earlier.

Generally speaking, pet rats are very quiet. They don’t make a lot of noise when playing nor will they squeak, contrary to popular belief. The only times you’ll hear your pet rat squeak is when they’re in trouble and need your help.

Pet rats communicate at a volume that can’t be heard by humans and the only time it’s audible for us it’s because they want it to be.

This is always good to know, for example, if you try to handle your pet rat and they squeak, this can mean that they’re either too scared for handling or there’s something hurting them.

If the first, it’s better to leave them be and let them come to you when ready. If the latter, your pet rat will usually try to look very small and try to hide the part of the body that is hurting. You should try to inspect it and, if needed, take it to the vet!

In short, if your pet rats keep a nocturnal schedule, you won’t hear from them during most of the day!

If you’re curious about rat pets schedules, you can check my “Are Pet Rats Nocturnal Or Diurnal?” article where I even mention curious facts like pet rats sleeping with their eyes open. I know it sounds weird, but it happens!

Pet Rats Noise During The Night

As I mentioned, pet rats tend to be active at night, so you might hear a bit more noise during the night. I usually recommend not leaving their cage in the bedroom, especially if you’re a light sleeper.

It’s not like they make a lot of noise. But they’ll play around with their toys, play fight with each other and will be eating. This kind of noise might cause you some trouble to sleep if you tend to wake up with minimal noise.

However, the reason I don’t recommend to have your pet rats cage in the bedroom is mostly because they should be where you spend more time at. For example, for us, it’s our office! We work there during the day, but it’s also the place where we relax, play some games or watch a movie or two.

Since we work at home, we’re with our pet rats for the whole day. They’ll sleep in their cage, sometimes on the sofa when we open the cage. Then in the afternoon, they’ll come out, greet us, play with us and with each other and are free to roam about some of the furniture.

Remember that pet rats are very sociable and want to spend time with you, so choose a place where you’ll be spending a lot of time when you’re home. If that place is the bedroom, then by any means, keep the cage there!

As I said, pet rats aren’t extremely noisy and if you have no problem with light noise, then you can sleep soundly.

Generally speaking, this is the kind of noises that you might hear when your pet rats are awake and more active:

• The water bottle: these usually have some beads on the tube that click against each other when the pet rat drinks from it. It’s probably the thing you’ll hear the most and I know some people where this was a problem for them at night.
• Toys: especially the wheels. As they’re used, the wheels might start to squeak and this might be annoying for you if your pet rats love to play with them. Other gnawing toys might also produce some noise as your rodent friend gnaws on it. If you want to look for the best pet rat toys that don’t make a lot of noise, check out my full article about the best pet rat toys for your pet!
• The food: pet rats food is made to gnaw and keep your friend’s teeth healthy. So it’s more than normal to hear the occasional, soft crunch of the food when they’re eating. Personally, I find it very cute, but if you’re trying to sleep and the cage is right next to you, this can be a problem. Here’s the best way to feed a healthy meal to your pet rat.
• Play-fights: pet rats play with each other and they do this by wrestling some times. This results on some rolling around the cage as well as some squealing when one of them has had enough. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it will from time to time.

Of course, there are ways to make them quieter at night, so let’s take a look at them!

How To Make Your Pet Rat More Quiet At Night

As I said, there are ways to make your pet rat more quiet at night. This can actually even help them accommodate their routines to yours!

For example, when you go to bed, you can take loud toys from their cage, for example, the wooden ones that you can hear when your rodent friends gnaw on them. The playing wheel can also be taken out of the cage.

It is actually recommended to not keep their toys at all times in their cages as well as you should change toys every week or so. Pet rats are very active and smart, they like puzzles and new toys.

This also means that they’ll tire of the same toy very quickly, so it’s good to have some spare toys and change them from time to time!

If the drinking bottle is a problem for you at night, try to replace it with a bowl during the night. Pet rats do very well with bowls as well, although they might accidentally fall on them while playing around.

Finally, keep the cage away from your bedroom. If you see that their noise doesn’t let you sleep properly you can move the cage to another division that is far away from the cage.

I’ve had to change the cage to another place when guests sleep in the house. Sometimes the cage would actually be closer to our bedroom than usual. It never bothered us, but again, everyone is different and some people are very sensitive to noise!

Even if you tend to have your pet rats in your bedroom during the day, but at night the noise bothers you, consider moving the cage every night and then back to the bedroom again.

I’d still recommend choosing a permanent place to keep the cage at, instead of moving it around daily. Not only is a bit of a hassle for you to move a big cage constantly, but it might also be very confusing for your rodent friends and it might be harder for them to adjust to their new home!

Lastly, if you see that your pet rats continue to keep their nocturnal schedules even after taking the toys and other stuff out during the night, consider also to have their cage on a place where the noise won’t disturb your sleep.

It’s not fair for our little friends to have nothing to play with during their most active times! It’s all a matter of trial and error and seeing what works best for you and your pet rats.