Sweet Pea mother of 10 keeps escaping. HELP

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Anna Allison

Anna Allison

New Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Messages
1
Location
Jasper, Alabama
I believe Sweet Pea has had it with her 11 day old kittens. She tore a hole in the lid of the 20 Gal tank I set up as a nursery. I caught her put her back in and covered the hole and she was back at it. Since it was late I put her in a pet traveling carrier by morning she had chewed out of it. When she decided to come to me I but her back in with her babies and put a heavy piece of wood over the place she had chewed thru on the lid. I went to the pet store and bought a reg. lid for the 20 gal. It turned out to be a tiny bit to large for the tank but I hope I've got it secure with Velcro. She has never been one for escaping, not like my male anyways. What can I do about this? She is a great mom all her babies are well fed. I keep plenty of food and water in the cage. Is it something I'm not doing properly or have the kids just got to her?
 
Are you giving her breaks from her babies …… to run around and play, visit her rattie friends and interact with you? Rats need breaks from their babies and the length of time they can be away increases as the babies age
 
You know, I haven't been taking her out as often or as long as I used to before she got so far along into her pregnancy. Since getting your reply, I've been taking her out more and spending some good quality time with her and she has not tried getting out out in the past 2 days.
As to the breathing I know what you mean. I clean her tank every night and the smell is still strong. I've actually thought about swapping cages with my male rat (he is in a much larger wire cage) I figure the babies will need the extra room before long. I have a bookshelf I've been thinking about turning into a three story cage. I'm going to have tho check into that.
Thanks for all your advice. I'm fairly new at being a rat mom and any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
 
If it's at a level that we humans can smell, then it's many times stronger for the rat. But males are even worse (& an intact male has 100 times more allergen in it than even neutered male, which has even made human lungs bleed)! I hate to say it, but I know first hand about being so poor that you end up with a permanently damaged rat, & it sounds like they all really need to be in wire. Air's the most important thing, and food/water of course. If the only wire you can get for now is a small one, maybe you can free range whoever lives in it to compensate. Do look up how close together the bars need to be to keep babies in & what fabrics to avoid with babies & handle them enough to make them adoptable, should come up easy in google.
 
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RatsDrawBlood said:
If it's at a level that we humans can smell, then it's many times stronger for the rat. But males are even worse (& an intact male has 100 times more allergen in it than even neutered male, which has even made human lungs bleed)! I hate to say it, but I know first hand about being so poor that you end up with a permanently damaged rat, & it sounds like they all really need to be in wire. Air's the most important thing, and food/water of course. If the only wire can you can get for now is a small one, maybe you can free range whoever lives in it to compensate. Do look up how close together the bars need to be to keep babies in & what fabrics to avoid with babies & handle them enough to make them adoptable, should come up easy in google.
Click to expand...
P.S. Hey co-ed dorm. Can you divide the bigger cage? I did this cutting a 20 dollar piece of sheet plastic from home depot then drilling holes to attach to bars with pipe cleaners and zip ties. At 5 weeks old the boys go in with their dad while girls stay with Mom on the other side? And they get to see each other even.
 
Can you get a double critter nation cage and put mom and babies in the half with the full pan, dad could live in the other half - cover the floor under the cut out pan with a piece of plastic and fit half a pencil case into the cut out (makes a small litter box)? or make a huge bin cage with a wire grid in one or 2 sides and in the top - so it is like a tank but better air flow

Below are a picture of a small bin carrier I made and a picture of a large bin cage I was made as a temporary cage to lend out as a cage ….. using a strong baking cooling rack for the wire grid makes making a bin cage much easier

bin carrier.jpg


bincagewithnewshelf.jpg


bincagetopviewfinishedshelf.jpg
 
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I had seen pictures before of a bin cage but they weren't as nice as yours. I will most likely go with a bin cage but it will be next week before I can buy the stuff to fix one. I was pricing the bins today at Wal-Mart. Let me ask you a dum question, at the pet store they have small, medium and large rats, is this the sizes they will stay or is this just the rats stages from youngest to oldest?
 
Anna Allison said:
Thanks that's real helpful and kind of scary, to think that in another 2 weeks I'll have 10 baby ratties that big. Wow!
Click to expand...

I would suggest that you start looking for a double Midwest critter nation cage, because soon you are going to need something that big - you may be able to get one used in good condition or petsmart sells them under the name All Living Things Multi-Level Home …. other places sell them as well such as ferret.com, amazon etc …..
 

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