you dirty rats!!

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Petunia

Petunia

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Supporting Member
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Nov 21, 2009
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no offense meant to my wonderful crew of seven, but omg they are messy!

they are semi-litter box trained; that is, five out of the seven will use the litter box about 75% of the time
the other two- the new boys- don't ever use the litter box.


Evie insists on backing up to the corner of the cage to poop so that her raisins drop outside of the cage.
Brenna and Smidgen get so excited when they wake up, that they sometimes just run to the closest corner to poop, whether or not there's a litter box there.
Paige prefers to use the litter box when she's in the cage, but when she's out, any where at all will do. And if she's upset or excited, pretty much any where will do.

Hope uses the litter box or the bottom of a ramp- but usually the ramp that is in in the litter box
She's such a good girl.


now the youngest two of these rats are ~9 mos old. Next oldest are 10 mos old, then a year old, a year and two months old and Hope, who is about 2.


is there any chance I can train them to use the litter box?

I can't afford to get a bass pan and make the bottom level like a huge litter pan, so now I'm basically changing out the fleece every day.
Not just because of all the poop, but also because the new boys like to scatter their fresh foods everywhere!
They are used to very different foods than what I give them and while they get excited by all the new veggies, they play with them more than eat them.

They also tuck lab blocks into the corners where the girls usually go to pee, so the lab blocks are getting wasted.

got any ideas on how I can remedy these issues? I've got a cold right now so I"m not up to the put them in the litter box when you see them go, and all that, I do try to keep up with spot cleaning the raisins, but if I don't do it four times a day, at least, it just gets out of control- with smooshed poops and food mixed in all over the place

so for right now, the easiest thing to do is to swap out all the liners every day or every other day, but that's gonna kill me on laundry detergent etc
so when I'm feeling better, I need to get this under control
:giggle:

I am guessing I"d need to move the cage into the kitchen if I am going to be able to catch the boys when they poop and get them into the litter box, eh?

yeh, thats gotta wait til I'm up to it but I can work on a plan for now, at least, right?
 
I have decided there are two total wastes of times in a cage 1. is liners 2. is litter boxes!

To stop them from falling out of the cage, get a piece of coroplast and cut it to fit the inside of the cage, just as a barrier. I made mine about 4 inches high and the width of each side of the cage, i put the liner on then I tuck the plastic piece between the cage wall and the base pan it makes it more snug in there too. I usually have them in mine but not since we moved into the rat room and went through all the cage changes.

Anymore i dont think any of my rats use the litter box constantly, the box is full and so is the cage so i gave up and just bought a hand held broom and dustpan LOL
 
I've never had a big colony where all of them used the litter box. When I have under 4, most times they end up all using the litter pan but I think that's because I'm always quite consistent in picking up after them. Eventually they get what I mean. But but colonies... forget it.
 
There's a litter box rebel (or 2) in every group.

Changing the litter out often seemed to help my boys, I usually only dumped the pan out when I was cage cleaning or if it was getting stinky, but dupming it out and putting down fresh litter every other day pleased the little ones and more poops made it into the box.

Apparently they've now decided that the food bowl is just as good as the litter box, lately I come home and there's poop in the food bowl, food in the litter box, and 3 very innocent looking rats who all swear they don't know how that happened.
 
It sounds like trying to make pans out of coroplast is the best bet for you. Just be careful when you score the coroplast that you don't cut through it. Otherwise you can try using newspaper to line the shelves instead of fleece (not sure how you would hold it down on the shelves) and throw it out every day. That wouldn't solve the issue of poops on the ground though.
 
I've been really lax with spot cleaning/box changing lately so now the new thing for my boys is to redecorate by kicking out all the litter... I only have two but as for poo on the ground I just vaccuum every week or two around my cage. For a while (a month... or more) my vaccuum wasn't working and my house was like... a poo sea. But it's better now lol
 
victoria said:
It sounds like trying to make pans out of coroplast is the best bet for you. Just be careful when you score the coroplast that you don't cut through it.
Click to expand...

I second this idea. If Flowetown didn't carry pans then I would be using coroplast right now. The only other thing I can think of is to go back to the basics of litter training by starting with the whole cage covered in bedding and slowly reducing the area the bedding takes up until you are down to just litter pans.
 
I'm 100% pro litter vs liners, if that makes sense...lol
I know the bass pans seem a little steep at 1st , it was $63 for 2 bottom pans for me(since I have 2 single CN) but like you said, by the time you add your water+ electricity +detergent and TIME to change and switch the liners, plus replacing the damaged liners...fleece isn't cheap as we all know...I think you spend well over $60-70 within a few months...just little by little instead of one lump sum, if that make sense. once you buy Bass pans, that's it, no more of the above mentioned!

I also use a lot of shredded paper, the all love playing in/with it and it does help on the shelves, since they usually like to make bedding with it, they naturally cover some areas with it :)
maybe ask around, like offices or public services,see if you can have their shredded paper, I know around here, they LOVE when I come and get it, something less for them to get rid of, I have to tell them 1 bag is PLENTY, they want me to take all the paper...LOL and I get like industrial size bags too...HHUUGGEEE!!!!

I actually put my Bass pans in yesterday and it was a huge relief for me to be back to having a big litter!!
 
i have found it is easier to live with when you call it their "Rock Garden" I gave up on trying to get them to stop missing the pan. I am starting to think the litter box might be more difficult for some of my older rats to get into. I will be cutting the sides down a bit for them.
 
I just gave my girl's the liter pan I bought them for x-mas, they use it at times (the old/er girl's use it no prob. sure I still need to remind them sometime's).

But I go down to the lower section were the kid's are and its like a hurricane went through the cage, with misplaced poops, pee, heck they even managed to smear the cage walls with it...I never had that problem of being messy and just plain wild with Aili and Kaina even Jade who's a bit older then the kid's is the picture of perfection and cleanliness ( she live's with Aili and Kaina tho).

Is this a phase or do I have piggie rats on my hands? Would living with the old/er girl's teach the kid's some manner's?
 

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