HELP! Rats having confetti parties

[emkeller]

Hi, new rat owner here. I rescued 2 female fancy rats and I love them BUT I do NOT love their habit of playing with their bedding. I have gotten the "kozy & clean" stuff that is basically ripped up paper shreds to look at it. The problem is they pick it up out of the bottom pan of their cage, drag it all over in bunches (which is kinda cute) and also toss it around so there is now a 5 foot confetti radius around their cage (not cute) and into the baseboard heater (dangerous?).
I tried cage liners, but they just rip the paper up and do the same thing. Meanwhile, their pee & poop doesn't get absorbed, so it winds up needing me to clean it constantly so the room doesn't smell.

Help! I will try any suggestions. These little girls wriggled their way into my heart, but I gotta find a way to fix this bad habit they have!

 

[jennifervb]

LOL.... rats naturally do that with their bedding so trying to rid them of this "bad habit" is not going to happen.

I replaced the "Yesterday's News" I used to use, for my boys, with fleece pieces. I spanned a large piece of fleece on the floor of the cage and secured it by letting the cage rest on top of it (the cage sat in the pan so the weight of the actual cage held the fleece in place.)

I washed the "rat bedding" every week. I found that having this type of bedding was both economical (you don't spend nearly as much money as you do when you buy bags of bedding... most of which is not good for the rats anyway as the dust affects their respiratory systems) and it was practical because they could not create the mountains you mention in your post.

What you are seeing is completely natural. If you still want to keep the bedding, you now use, I would suggest placing a large sheet over three sides of the cage. It will have to be a "rat sheet" because they will shred that too!!!! (isn't it fabulous!? :laugh4: :dance: :bunnydance It will, however, help keep the bedding inside the cage.

 

[rhapsody]

LOL, I too use the Kaytee Clean & Cozy. I actually have a girl that will deliberately shove the bedding through the cage wires, even right after a cage clean. Its become a nightly ritual to sweep/vacuum up the bedding they've tossed out, which I'm fine with. But then again, I don't have them near a heater. If you don't use the heater, maybe cover it up or put a "shield" in front of it?

Have you tried the Carefresh bedding? It tends to be a lot more clumpy and harder to escape small-spaced cage bars.

 

[Rapps]

Haha, I love your description of their habit, confetti parties ;p

What jennifervb said. It might be worth considering switching to fleece lined shelves and litter training them so you don't have to use bedding because they're never going to stop throwing it around. That's why I have laminate flooring instead of a carpet, it's much easier to sweep all the bedding off the floor every day ;p Sorry, that's just one another one of the pains of being a rat owner, haha.

 

[SQ]

What you have described is normal behaviour ... they aren't going to change so you will need to try something else.
Many of us litter boxes with a paper based unscented kitty litter in it .... such as yesterdays news.
You put litter boxes in the areas of the cage where they decide ... usually corners and the bottom of ladders.

Then use something different for bedding ... such as fleece or cotton (if not young babies), hardwood shavings, etc
If you look at the pics of people's cages you may find some ideas that might work for you.

btw, bedding needs to be frozen for approx 72 hrs after purchase to kill any parasites that may be in it.

Hope this info helps

 

[emkeller]

OK, thank you!!!! great ideas. The cage I have actually does sit in the pan too.
Shopping trip in the morning to get stuff to try these ideas out!

We will see which ones my little Marley & Luca like best

Will add a thank you to all 4 of you once I find out where that button is...