Roaming free question

[DeeDee]

So I see sometimes on forums or Reddit where people are saying, "Help, my rat ran off. How do I get him/her to come out from behind.....?" And then I see these videos of rats who are just roaming free. Some in a somewhat restricted area and some all over the living room. How do people get them to just run free without worry that they will run off and hide? When we feed our rats, we always try to make a certain noise, kind of like the noise you make to get a dog to come to you. That way if they do ever get loose and we can't find them, we're hoping that if they hear that noise they'll want to find us to get food/treats.

 

[RattoPazzo]

I free roam my rats in a rat profed part of may bedroom (even if in may expirience no rat proofing is ever 100% so when thay are out you always have to supervise!). I used cardboard to section off the "rat space" and cosed of the underside of furneture with wood. This is so that I know that thay are in a safe space were thay can destroy all thay want without destroing important things like cables and such.
Recall trainig is a very good thing you can do and having had a dog and now rats I find it is much esier with rats: but even very good traind rats migth not come out if they don't want you just have to be patient, train whit them every day if you can and find their favorit treats so that if thay do ever get stuck under something and you want to get them out you'll know their kriptonite.
hope this heps!
(sorry for any spelling mistakes but this is not my first language)

 

[DeeDee]

Thank you. This is helpful.

 

[Big Schpog]

My rats are free roam 100% of the day and night. I can do this b/c I live in a small room and that's it. They have total freedom. I've sealed off certain areas, like behind the fridge so that they can't go hide in there and I can't get them. I've learned alot about how rats think and how they try to get into certain areas.

Anyway, I can always access them when I need to because there are no spaces in my room where I can't get them.

I think training them to come when called is a good thing b/c you want them to learn this. You're using Pavlovian training on them to get them to associate food and that sound you make.

I'd supervise them when they are out free. I love to imagine rats being free in a living room with their entire human family. That's the best thing for them.