My rats keep peeing on everyone and everything.

[bige]

I feel like I need a rain coat around here sometimes.

I have two 11mo old boys that i just rescued a month ago. I have been able to get them resocialized pretty well, but we still have some work to do. My larger male Scabbers is more shy and is much worse about the peeing than Rex is. Rex can be out for longer before an accident happens. Scabbers is guranteed to pee in 5 mins or less. They can be on my shoulder or anywhere and just cut loose. Now I know that rats arent dogs, but I would think something would tell them that "now aint the time".

I see everyone here at the RS with their ratties playing on their laptop, on the bed or couch or even on the floor. Mine would piss all over everything. It's really hard to get them out for any length of time to play or just hang out because accidents are going to happen and my wife only has so much patience for rat urine on stuff. The worse part is that the kids dont want to hold the rats for fear of being drenched. I went through three shirts today and the one I have on now got shot down a little earlier. :emb:

So is this normal for rats? Is it a socialization problem? Should I just buy a rain coat and plan on using it? I dont know rats and dont know anyone that has any to compare mine to. Help.


Big E

 

[lizmo1221]

That problem is never going to go away, but there a few things I have figured out to help reduce it.

First, if you take them out right after they wake up, they are more likely to pee on you, since they didn't have the chance to empty their bladders after sleeping. So only take them out when they are already awake, or if you wake them up give them a chance to relieve themselves before out time. Very young or very old rats I've found pee more often, probably because of bladder control issues. I have a rat blanket and rat clothes (aka a spare set of pj's). When they are out on the couch, floor, or bed the blanket goes down first, which of course can be easily washed, and if they pee on my pj shirt I don't really care. Stressed out rats will have more accidents as well, so they might get better as they get socialized.

Any rat will dribble here or there as they walk around, but once trained they will rarely empty their bladders (within a certain time frame of course, none of us can hold it forever! lol) When my girls came to me I ended playtime if they totally relieved themselves while out (after they were fully socialized I had given them the chance to pee before coming out of course, I didn't want to be unfair) and they connected the dots pretty quickly, and accidents are rare now. If you have litter trained rats have a litter box out during playtime so they have a place to go if need be.

Hope it all works out for you!

 

[victoria]

What Liz said. The only thing I want to add is when I have my guys out I either have them in a situation where they can get back to the cage and use their litter box and/or have a litter box available to them. My rats regularly mark me and anything else they can but I can count the times I've had rats completely empty their bladder on me on one hand. Most rats will try to get off me if they know they have to pee - the ones that peed on me were quite old and/or very sick. Intact boys are much more likely to mark and dribble, so if it really bothers you that much and neutering is an option, that's something that would help.

 

[Sharlees rattakisses]

I call peeing "Slug Nutting"
Don't ask me why I just do. :lol:
My Niece has 6 boy ratties and they love to pee and drag it over my hand or arm.
Marking me as there's I guess.
I cover couches and my lap with blankets to capture there accidents.
Unfortunately it gets on my clothes and hands but it's washable.
Try to socialize with them still in there cage for a while so they have a chance to.....go.

 

[SQ]

I too wear "rat clothing" - clothing that can be peed on or chewed.
Protecting anything you don't wat to get urine marked is important.
Allowing access to a litter box is also important.
Rts will train themselves to use litter boxes, howver, it will never be 100%.
I have found that older rats who were previously kept in cages where the entire cage was a litter box, are slower to adjust to litter boxes.

 

[bige]

Thanks for the info. I too am now finding that I have "rat clothes". Giving them time to wake up makes sense. Mine tend to sleep all day and wake up about 8 or 830 at night. I dont know what their schedule is while im at work (time for a webcam!), but i do know that they are pretty lazy on the weekends. Maybe they need jobs. I do tend to get them out soon after they are awake. I prob need to let them chill a bit before getting them out.

The marking is normal I know, but mine tend to just opend up all over us. I like "slug nutting" im stealing that one. I'll change my schedule a bit and see if that helps.

In the mean time I have laundry to do!

Thanks

 

[temblabamomo]

Maybe they need jobs.

:laugh4: I frequently think the same about my boys, but then they look at me incredulously and say "Chewing holes in our hammocks and burying the food dish with bedding and other random miscellanous objects IS our job. If we didn't spend 20 hours a day sleeping, how would we have the energy to get our job done? The food dish isn't going to bury itself, ya know, and it's actually a lot harder than it looks. Sheesh..."

My ma was revolted by the mere sight of my first rats. Getting peed on by them had her going postal. That was a few years ago. These days it is not uncommon for me to find her on the couch with her 'rat blankie' covering her lap watching t.v. while cuddling Obie, who is by far the most active urine marker of my lot. Just saying, people can get used to just about anything.

 

[bige]

Maybe they need jobs.

:laugh4: I frequently think the same about my boys, but then they look at me incredulously and say "Chewing holes in our hammocks and burying the food dish with bedding and other random miscellanous objects IS our job. If we didn't spend 20 hours a day sleeping, how would we have the energy to get our job done? The food dish isn't going to bury itself, ya know, and it's actually a lot harder than it looks. Sheesh..."

Funny, mine dont do any of that. They just hang out in their box. They will ocassionally turn it over or drag it about, but thats about it. I really do think they have time for jobs. At night they run on the wheel or scurry up the walls onto the hamocks. I made them a peanut hanger today out of a piece of stainless tig wire and hung it so they will have to stretch to get the nuts (in the shell). It'll will be interesting to see what they do with that.

 

[Moon]

They are always going to pee all over the place to some degree, but hopefully it will ease up and turn more into "marking" with little dribbles, as opposed to full out pees. With more time, as they get more comfortable, it should. You can always take them out of the cage, and just a moment or two later, pop them back in to see if they have to pee, and then take them back out.

When I do out time on my bed, I throw an old quilt on top, and there's always fleece blankets on my couches because of my dogs. So that's helpful when dealing with tinkly rats. And honestly, when they pee on my rat clothes... I'll survive smelling like rat pee until it's time to change or shower, LOL

 

[hopefloats]

Mine never lease a whole pee on me thank goodness, but my girls, will dribble all over me, one will do it, the other says nope, i marked that spot, then they will do it again. It is ongoing with them. My boys not so much but they do it a little bit. I usually put a spare blanket on me so if they do it, it is not drenching my legs......