Do rats need sunlight?

[fireworks]

Right now, my rats are in my room, which has lots of natural sunlight coming in through the windows. They always have night and day. (But it never gets too hot or too cold!) I can't let them run around the whole room because there's way too much stuff for them to get in and under, so they have a Martin's Playpen. The problem with that is, they like having access to their cage while playing instead of being completely separate. SO I built a small playpen around their cage. They like it, but it's too small for them to really 'run around.' I can't make it bigger. It's already as big as it can be. And I have been thinking....

There's a room in my basement (a heated, furnished basement, not a yucky cement one, lol) that's completely bare. It's a smallish room but with nothing in it but a few storage items, and a carpet. But with just a rat cage it would be ratty HEAVEN. I could put toys everywhere. Problem is, there are no windows. So would it be bad to keep them down there? Most animals I know like to have sunlight, but are rats an exception? If I left their lights on all day and turned them off at night, would that be bad?

If I ever did move them down to this room, it wouldn't be for a while anyway, as it's still used for some storage and I'd have to take everything out and move it elsewhere. Its just a possibility for the future.

 

[SQ]

It is good to keep rats in a room that is well used so they get a lot of interaction.
I would also worry about safety issues like exits in case of fire.
But I don't think sunlight would be a concern, as long as they have day time vs nighttime.

 

[Godmother]

I don't think that they need sunlight, although I have read that they need a certain amount of darkness to be healthy. I keep the blinds in my rat room down so that it doesn't get too hot or too bright for them, especially in summer.

Your room downstairs sounds wonderful as long as you don't mind doing a lot of carpet cleaning!

 

[Dewi]

I've often wondered this myself. But wild rats do come out during daylight so I'd say that rats do need some sunlight. My thoughts would be to set up a rat play room downstairs with a second cage, assuming your current cage is too big to be carried about. I had a similar set up at one stage when I had several groups of rats who took turns having access to a rat play room. My guys would spend a day or two in the play room before being returned to their cage.

 

[fireworks]

Well I'm not sure fire exits would be a huge problem, as the main basement room where the bunnies are has a big glass door that goes right outside. So it's a lot closer to an exit than the room they're in now.

The alternative cage and play room is also a good idea, I'll probably think about it some more. =]

 

[ryelle]

Hey,

I'm not so sure about rats needing sunlight, but if they do, then take a look at this:

http://www.24parrot.com/Lighting-C168/

I know it's a parrot store, but it's just to show that you can buy natural UV light-bulbs. They sell some that would fit in to ordinary light fittings (until recently i thought you could only buy the UV tubes), so you wouldn't need to buy anything expensive for the bulb to go in.

Just a thought

 

[ryelle]

Oh, windows block out a large % of the sun's UV rays anyways, which is why parrots need the artifical light otherwise they become sick. So i spose it wouldnt be that important to a rat anyway