Bathing

Do you bath your rats, and if so how?
Whenever i have tried with mine, they really freak out and poop in fear. I have tried small volume of water in sink, so they can still stand up in which they did not like at all and i have tried taking them into the shower, which was not as bad as the sink but still not liked very much. How do you clean your rats?

Rats do not need to be bathed unless they are ill, elderly or managed to get themselves in a big mess. If one of those situations arises, your best bet is some scentless baby wipes or using some cotton pads / paper towels with baby shampoo to clean them. You can also fight through it with them in the sink, but its really only necessary when they cant perform their natural cleaning functions. I wouldn't expect any rat to enjoy a bath (although there are a rare few who do).

I don't really bathe my rats, as they don't particularly care for being wet. Occasionally, if their fur is dingy or they have little patches of porphyrin staining on their shoulders (from a friend sneezing on them, I assume), I'll rinse them while they are playing in the sink. They get pretty indignant about being soaked to the skin, though, and I don't do it very often. They also aren't big fans of being towel-dried, either--they prefer to dry themselves while hiding in my shirt.

You have to be careful about keeping them warm if they're soaked, so I avoid getting them wet on purpose when it's cold.

I've never used any kind of soap on them, though I've read that kitten shampoo should be used if you do. I would never use it on my rats because they hardly tolerate being wetted once--they'd never stand for enough rinsing to get the soap off! I have not found the stress it puts on them to be worth the end result.

I clean my girls' cage with unscented baby wipes, so I've used them to wipe poopy feet (and a poopy booty, once). Of course, they don't like that either!

My boys do get baths when they get messy, old, or especially have buck grease build up. I use the bathroom sink with a small towel placed in the bottom with an opening for water to drain down. Some will stand up and hold the faucet and let the water run down them. I usually don't use soap, but when I do its a small animal soap or Dawn dish soap for the buck grease. I never wash them or get water above their shoulders.

I bathe my girls around once a month to once every month and a half or so. I do it mainly because I have a white rat who will get dingy, and a bath whitens her right back up. The other four get baths because I have a few that will just flop down in my hands and let me rub all over them, and because it's easier to get their tails clean than it is with wipes. Again, my white girl especially cause she has a beautiful light colored tail.

I will usually start giving them baths once they're around 2 months old and are comfortable around me. They get bathed in the sink with a towel in the bottom. The scary part about sinks for them is that the metal or ceramic is really slippery and they freak out because they can't really a hold of the sink. I use warm (not hot!) water and test it much the same as you would milk from a baby bottle. I use a teeny tiny drop of dawn dish soap and bathe them one at a time. I have two girls who have fur that will only get wet after the soap is applied. After their baths, they each get wrapped up in a towel and get to sit and play with me on the couch while I keep drying them off. And they always get treats after.

You'll find that rats deal with water in different ways. I have two fantastic bathers, and one of them likes to play in water any other time. I have one that tolerates it (the white one. Because her hair is so long and fine, she looks like an angry gremlin once she's wet). My second to youngest tolerates it a little less and needs a few time outs during bath time. (By time outs I mean she sits on my arm until she's ready to go back to the water.) My youngest freaks out and really just gets her tail washed.

Rats are like cats. They groom themselves and do not need to be bathed.
Some people with unneutered males will bath them once every few months because of the buck grease.
Elderly or ill rats that are unable to groom themselves may need help with grooming but people usually use things
such as unscented baby wipes instead of bathing them
Bathing rats can dry out their skin and disturb the oil balance so it is not good to do it more than once a month

I've really only bathed my rats when they've either.
A. Rolled in lots of poop and always smell like poop.
B. Pee on each and like to sit in pee so they smell strongly, and I do mean strongly of urine.
C. They get into a giant mess of baby food.
Though, I usually do the wipe down with a damp towel with a bit of baby shampoo. I've never bathed my rats more than once or twice in their life minus elderly/ill rats. Even then it's usually the towel method since that's the one they prefer and I prefer as well since they won't claw my arms off. I have boys though, boys sort of smell normally from their natural musk which I don't mind at all. I wouldn't bathe your rats unless you really have to. Honestly the only times I did it were because either my boyfriend complained, when I lived with my mother she would threaten them or if an adopter is coming and the boys smell strongly of poop since they loved to sleep in the litter box~

I had to bathe one of mine with chlorhexidine shampoo because of open infected sores/pyoderma (due to scratching from presumably allergies - basically atopic dermatitis).

I used cotton make-up removal pads (the kind that come in a stack for like 90 cents) with a bit of warm water and the soap to apply it, then an old hair dye bottle filled with warm water to gently rinse the areas that had soap on them. She hated it, but clicker training/lots of treats and breaks got us through most times. The hair dye bottle was really nice because it allowed me to target the water only where it was needed, and I could move it to any angle (as opposed to the faucet which is fixed in one spot). I tried other ways, but that worked best for my girl.

If you must bathe, it'll be a bit trial and error figuring out what that particular rat can deal with best. Just go gently and try to acclimatise them as slowly as you can to avoid causing any more trauma than you have to!