Taking rats outdoors

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SQ

Senior Member - Vegan for the animals
Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
17,208
Location
central New Brunswick Canada
Taking rats outdoors usually means putting their lives at risk.

A. There is danger from predators such as:

1. large birds of prey (eagles, ospreys, hawks, etc) who will swoop down so fast you will never see them coming until it is too late and your rat is gone

2. cats, dogs, raccoons, etc

3. snakes

B. from parasites:

1. intestinal worms (pin worms, round worms, tape worms, etc)

2. fleas etc

3. ticks who may carry diseases such as Lyme disease

4. bot flies that may eggs under your pet's skin

C. from pesticides

D. from disease from other animals, such as sendai virus, which has the potential to kill all of your pet rats if one of them catches it

E. from poisonous prey or plants

F. from heat stroke

G. and by being startled and jumping off you or scattering, and being injured, killed, or never found

Quote: There are many outdoor dangers and a lot can go wrong, from pesticides to poisonous prey or plants to predators to heat stroke. A very tame rat can scatter at a sudden sound and never find its way back. Hawks see a rat a mile away and can swoop up to 250 miles an hour. Hawks have been known to take a rat off a person's shoulder. Snakes hide in the grass or even come up from underground. Rats can get the virus sendai from wild animals, which easily kills your whole mischief (all your rats and mice). So while it can be a lot of fun and we each choose our risks, I want people to know there are very serious risks.

So if you do take them outside, make sure they are in a large strong cage (with a top and a bottom), and are supervised by you at all times …. and always have access to shade and water
This is still a risk, as they would be exposed to parasities, UV radiation, could escape, and could be exposed to predators when being moved into and out of the pen
 
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