This article is from the WSSF 2013 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

Did You Know?  The head swaying the pink-eyed rats do is called motion parallax. They have poorer visual acuity than rats with pigmented eyes and do this for depth perception. Also, by having no pigment in the eyes, light causes retinal degeneration over time. So, having rats in a brightly lit room is harmful to them. See more in the Medical topic Rats & Lyme Disease; Draining Tumors, the Rats and Sunlight section.

To read more on rat vision, visit the What Do Rats See? page on the Rat Behavior and Biology web site.