do you have any tips on keeping the smell down? my roommates have rats and they just stink like pee all the time and they take their poops out of the cage and throw them on the floor, it gets better with a deep clean but they just stink the place up again the next day..
9:53 pm
love those lil rats tho wouldn't trade them for anything
we vaccum it up every day and prevent the dog from eating them but.. the just pick it up and toss poops from the very top of a tall cage so it lands.. everywhere
Frequent cleaning is the name of the game with rats. Also, corner/litter training rats helps immensely.
That said, I had a pair once a few years ago I nicknamed my "bachelor rats" who gave no fucks. They'd poo and pee everywhere, and scatter it everywhere, and all I could do was just clean the cage more frequently. I could never get them to just go in a corner. Hell, they'd be laying in a hammock and need to pee, and just piss all over the hammock, soaking themselves as much as the hammock. Yes, they got bathed regularly
Also on the corner/litter training thing: a "pee stone" helps a lot. A flat smooth river rock set in the corner you want them to "go" in. It attracts them as a place to mark with their urine, and then they smell their urine there and think "oh I should relieve myself here too" and so it goes.
A rat cage should really be cleaned no less than once a week. They have very delicate respiratory systems and are prone to respiratory disease, and ammonia buildup is really bad for them.
Oh weird, girls usually are much better about not making a mess. But with 4, yeah, twice a week or more is definitely a need. I've only ever kept them in pairs.
I have a feeling I know how the poo gets scattered everywhere... Rat launches self from bedding up onto cage bars, poo and bedding gets stuck to her feet and as she lands on the bars it goes flying out. Rinse and repeat x4
Yeah that kind tends to get stuck to their feet easily and they also like to carry it around for some reason. But it is the best in terms of lung health. It's low-dust and low-irritant.
10:03 pm
They might want to invest in a scatter guard for the bottom of the cage, and definitely keep the volume of litter low, no more than 2 inches, otherwise rats will burrow and spread the litter all over even more lol
You can do that too! Just be aware that whatever you use to secure it with will without fail become a chewing target.
10:06 pm
What brand is the cage? Some manufacturers make specifically designed scatter guards for their cages. Like mine is a Critter Nation and they make scatter guards for both the top and bottom levels.
one of the daughters was born without a left eye and was the runt of the litter so she was named Tiny and she is like the friendliest and sweetest baby ever
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What's the pit in the corner for?
Five-lined Flying Dragon - Draco quinquefasciatus
Bernard DUPONT
