Who has free range rats? 1/6/12 update :)

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hopefloats

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Oct 15, 2010
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There once was a time, I couldnt leave pika and her group alone for even a second without finding her somewhere she shouldn't be. Man that girl drove me nuts.

That group has since became my role model rats :) Craziness!

I can open their cage door, remove the doors and let them roam in the room. I do take the computer chair out of the room since skittles is still fond of my desk. But with that being the only two safety measure I have to take. They come out sniff around either find a nice nap place or they go back to the cage to sleep. They do their share of running around but it not nearly as bad as the babies who are constantly on the go. Some are old and lazy their idea of out time is coming out, walking around then crawling in the box for a nap...

They are mostly older now, some act older than the others lol but I have been debating giving them more free range of the room when I am not here since they dont get into trouble.

There are no parts of my wall they can get to I put coroplast around my whole wall on the ground because well finding a rat got into the wall is not appealing to me and if all mine did it , well it would be a mess! This group don't care about the other cages of rats they totally ignore their existence.

Any ideas on this? Comments? concerns?

This is my baby group, my group of first rats so now that they are aging, I want them to have as many opportunities as possible.
 
My boys have their own room to play. It is completely rat proofed with no exposed wires or anything. I find as long as I give them new things to entertain themselves, they are fine on their own. They have tons of hidey holes, tunnels, boxes, beds and chew toys to keep them busy. I am always looking for new stuff to keep them engaged.

I also built a frame with wire for the window so they can get up and enjoy the fresh air, weather permitting.
 
My rats get half a bedroom. I can't allow them access to my computers and other important cables around the room. So they get a portion, blocked off by coroplast. I've been doing this for over a year now, the rats love it.
Sounds like you have a good set up Peggy.
 
hopefloats said:
But do you leave them out when you are not there?

I wouldn't advise that. I used to do that. They know you are not there and do whatever they want, INCLUDING chewing. And destroying things. I don't know if all rats do that, but I've caught mine several times sneaking around when I leave the room for a minute. For example, I don't allow them where my DVD, stereo and TV is. Once she hears the door closing, my rat Salem runs and starts climbing there. If I suddenly burst in, I catch her on my TV, and she just freezes where she is. :lol:

By the way, thefriggintribe, may I ask if you could post a few pictures of your rats' play area? I've always wanted to have a separate room for my rats, but I can't :(
 
I have had one of more free range rats for a while. Jimmy was the first. He was a bit of a butthead to other rats and I forgot to close his door one day. When I came home and into the rat room, he came running. He LOVED it. He was so bonded to me though and I spent a lot of time with him. I now have another boy, Sammy that is a free ranger. He's a very small male and can squeeze through the bars on the fn. He kept escaping (even when Jimmy was still with me) and he just goes in and out of the fns to steal others food. You should see the huge pile that he's made when I get home from work. :giggle:
 
Salem The Rat said:
hopefloats said:
But do you leave them out when you are not there?

I wouldn't advise that. I used to do that. They know you are not there and do whatever they want, INCLUDING chewing. And destroying things. I don't know if all rats do that, but I've caught mine several times sneaking around when I leave the room for a minute. For example, I don't allow them where my DVD, stereo and TV is. Once she hears the door closing, my rat Salem runs and starts climbing there. If I suddenly burst in, I catch her on my TV, and she just freezes where she is. :lol:

By the way, thefriggintribe, may I ask if you could post a few pictures of your rats' play area? I've always wanted to have a separate room for my rats, but I can't :(


it is a rat proof room...no way to get up, get stuck or chew through anything they are not allowed too. the walls are all protected with coroplast and they dont even try to mess with it :) All my cables up on top of my desk and blocked totally from them being able to get them. Minus my mishap the other day, but that was my carelessness.

I even put hardware cloth on vents which are blocked anyway just to make sure :)

lj said:
I have had one of more free range rats for a while. Jimmy was the first. He was a bit of a butthead to other rats and I forgot to close his door one day. When I came home and into the rat room, he came running. He LOVED it. He was so bonded to me though and I spent a lot of time with him. I now have another boy, Sammy that is a free ranger. He's a very small male and can squeeze through the bars on the fn. He kept escaping (even when Jimmy was still with me) and he just goes in and out of the fns to steal others food. You should see the huge pile that he's made when I get home from work. :giggle:

That is awesome. I would totally love to allow them to have have it more, since they are older and I want them to be spoiled in their old age. The others would earn that right as well when they get older but for now, I only have one group that is safe to leave unattended for any period of time. LOL there other groups I usually have to take one or two with me when I leave the room for more than a second. I still have a few things I want to work out then I may work on maybe letting them free range more when I leave periodically through the day.
 
Salem The Rat, from your post in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=28223&p=390728#p390728

I understand that your experience with free ranging rats was into a bedroom or a room at your parents house? a room with another purpose than being a rat only/rat proof room only?

Peggy is a homeowner with a nice rat room, purposely made and proofed for her colony of 30 some rats, she is not suggesting to let them roam in her entire house without supervision :)
 
I have a rat-proofed room, but I never leave them when I'm away or sleeping, but only because I am paranoid about someone needing to come in to my apartment for some emergency, and getting freaked out by my rats/letting them out/stepping on them.

I'm home a lot though...maybe when that changes, and Peter is neutered so I can re-intro them all as a group of four (instead of two pairs), I'll let them out and put a sign on the door.

I do think it's a bit too dangerous to let them out in an area that isn't rat-proofed though. Even if they're good while you're watching, something might happen while you're gone and you won't be able to help...but you know your rats better than anyone...
 
kscanuck785 said:
Salem The Rat, from your post in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=28223&p=390728#p390728

I understand that your experience with free ranging rats was into a bedroom or a room at your parents house? a room with another purpose than being a rat only/rat proof room only?

Peggy is a homeowner with a nice rat room, purposely made and proofed for her colony of 30 some rats, she is not suggesting to let them roam in her entire house without supervision :)

Yes, I keep them in my bedroom, and I live in my parents' house. :nod:
 
When I used my spareroom my rats where in there a lot....and sometimes overnight.....I had a large group of young rats....and they needed the running, jumping and playing that the room filled with toys provided..... they never did anything while I wasn't there that they didn't do while I was there.......they actually seemed to only go back to their cage once a day so I could give the room a good cleaning.....it was great!
 
I left them out last night... I took both the doors off the cage and let them have free range of the room. I came in this morning and all of them were in their cage sleeping.. Nothing was out of whack or missing or where it should not be :)
 
My oldest group of rats enjoy being out all night. I have done it a few times since this post. Right now the cage has been open since about 9pm last night.

it is almost 10am now. they come out, go back in the cage to snooze or they sleep under sebastians new cage which I keep two blankets on since it is wire.

I am not sure how much they do at night but it is randomly through out the day I have seen a rat pop out, play a bit then go back for a nap.

And the room is still standing LOL
 
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