Shedaeza
New Member
Anyone have any advice??
1.5 weeks ago, I "adopted" two female rats from a girl who was being evicted from her apartment, they're almost a year old and the sweeeetest little angels. Shedaeza is gentle calm fat little agouti dumbo and Cheveyo is an active and curious little himalayan top ear with a smudgy nose. I'm so in love with them. I've been rescuing and fostering rats pretty much the last 10 years straight, but this is the first time that I live somewhere where I have a spare room, and it's not carpeted and it's PERFECT as a rat room. I rat proofed the door of the empty room, added boxes, food, hiding spots etc and let them free in the room... thinking they would LOVE it. I'm really worried about Shedaeza though, because although they both don't seem to be adjusting as well as I hoped, she is really not adjusting well. She's almost always up on one of the closet shelves looking really nervous.
I tried moving one of the cardboard box houses into the bottom of the closet thinking she'd like that but she doesn't use it. Is this normal, in anyones experience? I know so many people have free range rats. I almost wonder if she would feel better in a cage and I can bring them down into the living room? Or will she adjust? I imagine that the last cage she was in with this girl, judging by the pictures, was pretty barren and not very large and maybe the wide open space is just a lot for her to get used to?? We also live by and unfortunately face a highway that is REALLY noisy because of huge semis that use the road through the city and I don't think that helps either. I'm thinking of getting them a cage (with hammocks and all the usual cage stuff) and just leaving it open in the room, see if that helps her? Any advice on what I could do to make her feel more comfortable in the meantime?? It could be a few more weeks until I can afford to buy them a cage but I don't want her living in fear until then and I worry so much when they're stressed.
1.5 weeks ago, I "adopted" two female rats from a girl who was being evicted from her apartment, they're almost a year old and the sweeeetest little angels. Shedaeza is gentle calm fat little agouti dumbo and Cheveyo is an active and curious little himalayan top ear with a smudgy nose. I'm so in love with them. I've been rescuing and fostering rats pretty much the last 10 years straight, but this is the first time that I live somewhere where I have a spare room, and it's not carpeted and it's PERFECT as a rat room. I rat proofed the door of the empty room, added boxes, food, hiding spots etc and let them free in the room... thinking they would LOVE it. I'm really worried about Shedaeza though, because although they both don't seem to be adjusting as well as I hoped, she is really not adjusting well. She's almost always up on one of the closet shelves looking really nervous.
I tried moving one of the cardboard box houses into the bottom of the closet thinking she'd like that but she doesn't use it. Is this normal, in anyones experience? I know so many people have free range rats. I almost wonder if she would feel better in a cage and I can bring them down into the living room? Or will she adjust? I imagine that the last cage she was in with this girl, judging by the pictures, was pretty barren and not very large and maybe the wide open space is just a lot for her to get used to?? We also live by and unfortunately face a highway that is REALLY noisy because of huge semis that use the road through the city and I don't think that helps either. I'm thinking of getting them a cage (with hammocks and all the usual cage stuff) and just leaving it open in the room, see if that helps her? Any advice on what I could do to make her feel more comfortable in the meantime?? It could be a few more weeks until I can afford to buy them a cage but I don't want her living in fear until then and I worry so much when they're stressed.
