rat not able to climb down

Question
Flute is probably 2 months old and was all alone in a cage in Pets at Home so I bought her and two others slightly younger so they could go together. For several days she just curled up on a shelf by herself, but I'm relieved that now she snuggles up with the others in the hammock.
She has pink eyes and sways her head, so probably her vision is not as good as the others, plus she is very docile and seems to like being handled, while the other two are really frisky.
I take her out and put her in the bottom of the cage, and she climbs back up. However she never goes back down, so I've had to put a water bottle and food on the top shelf.
If she's climbing the bars she just seems too scared to go down. There's also a tube from the top shelf to the middle and then a ladder to the floor. She can sit in the top of the tube, but again seems scared to go down.
Could this be an inner ear problem or just something for her to gradually get used to? (Maybe grew up in a rather restricted environment?) They have been in this cage now for a week.
I suppose I could try putting the tube in the playroom so it's level and she can get used to that?
No signs of illness that I know about (but most of mine have been adult rescues).
If you have come across this problem I would be very grateful for advice. Many Thanks.

Answer

Finley

Two of my baby boys Hi

I have three new babies, born May 28th and May 23, so they are pretty young as well and as you said, mighty frisky.  I also have one little guy, my little boy Riley, who is not half as agile as his brothers.  In fact, little Cobie is the one that can jump from the floor straight up to 3 feet and climbs all over the place. Keeps me on my toes for sure during playtime. I am only grateful to have a room devoted totally to rats so its rat safe, rat proofed, whatever you need to call it.  But he STILL tries to find trouble. I have to try to describe this best I could about rats vision. In fact its easier to read my website, sandyscrittercity.com about head swaying and why they do this. Here is the link:

All rats have lousy vision but pink or red eyed rats have vision a bit worse than the dark eyed rats, but nevertheless, they would be legally blind if they were humans. No worries though since rats do not depend on their sight to navigate. They have such a keen sense of smell and are super senstive to vibration (thank their whiskers for that) in the wild, they live in tunnels underground, travel by night mostly, and they mark their way with urine, using their sense of smell to find their way back to their nest just by the urine markers they left, which explains why rats tend to leave trails of urine in new surroundings. Nothing to do with being lazy, they are making sure they dont lose their way back to their familiar surroundings. Of course they use it to mark their turf too, but I thought it was interesting why else they do it. Again, the head swaying is a way for the rat to focus on distant objects, in other words, so they can figure out if they are close enough to an object to make the jump.  Your little one may either have a problem with depth perception and this keeps him from going down something but I am leaning more toward he is erring on the side of caution because he is not comfortable enough yet with his surroundings. Could be lack of sight and wanting to be sure about things yet.  Anyhow, my baby boys? The dumbo, Riley, wont go to the other side of the room yet. He still insists on either staying inside my shirt or running to the toy area and staying close to the walls, which is another wild rat trait. Rats travel the perimeter of an area, staying close to the side walls rather than venturing out in the middle of the room where danger lurks (people, cats, dogs, you name it) which is why nasty mean rat traps are set more towrd the walls in the room by professionals that know where the rats travel most.  

If he had an inner ear infection, this would more or less cause balance issues, making him walk in circles, tilt his head to the side, spin, sometimes even walk backwards or tip over. Steroids and antibiotics are the cure for this.  I dont think this is the problem though.

Lets give him a few more weeks. I think he will adjust, but dont be surprised if he doesnt. He may have an odd way about him, which many rats do (I always say they are more neurotic than humans at times!!) finding odd ways to go about something and never wanting to do it any other way but his own way, the way he feels most comfortable with, which is why I tell people not to interfere and force a rat to do something he doesnt want to do such as when a shy rat refuses to come out of the cage, never pick him up and force him (I know this doesnt apply to you but many people are misguided and told to do this by someone with not so accurate info on rat care) I have had many babies that were shy and not wanting to come out, adults as well, but in time, once they trust you, their natural curiosity gets the best of them and they cannot resist coming out to explore, even if its a year later and I am serious, some rats are so unsocial (which is sad) that they dont start to come out and go near their owner until they are older, and its always so sad because they find out they love to play and love to cuddle with their owner and only have a short time left on this earth to enjoy it since they have such a short life span, which is around 3 years when you have a healthy well bred rat, sometimes even going on 4 years (I have had a few making it to that age, which is not the norm) 2 to 2.5 for the rat that is not lucky enough to be well bred, but we love them as much as we can and give them a happy forever home no matter how long we have with them.

Please let me know how things go over the next few weeks, and of course should something come up unusual, let me know of course and contact the vet if you think he may be having issues with his health etc...  Below is a photo of my baby boys. This is when my little guy was around 7 weeks old. He was the size of a mouse! he is now 9 weeks old and fiesty as can be.


REVISED:

I dont think the photos showed!! Darn!!  I will have to send again once I hear from you!