Rats on the run..

[jwsporty]

Well I had to tell you this little story.

Yesterday I setup a second cage to accomodate a new 1.3 Rat colony. The juvi's were from a litter of my existing colony. These cages are the ones you would normally use for a Rabbit or Ferret. As the adults have readiliy accepted this cage. I figured it was a good choice. The cages sit side by side on the floor in our kitchen. So I transfered the juvi's over to the new cage. Well being an early riser, I went into the kitchen this morning to get a coffee and discovered than one of them was BACK IN the cage that I house the original colony. I thought to myself, Oh S&^%, time to go hunting. But sure enough, ALL 4 of the juvi's had escaped and returned to the cage that houses mom and dad...all curled up with Dad...funny. Never had this problem before, but I guess Mom and Dad see the kids on the run and then :grab: :). Guess I will leave them in the original cage for now ;)

[Lisa]

we had this problem with mice. the mice would squeeze out of their cage and go back. drove us nuts. now we use glass tanks.

[lanalizard]

teehee that actually sounds cute! altho rats are extremely intelligent ya know!

[Pixie]

Wow! Quite the little houdinis!!!

Good that you mention this because I just set up my first rat colony and it's in a guinea pig cage set up. I will be sure to have a rubbermaid or something with full sides and secure top for the second!

Pixie

[wyz]

ouh !

Lucky you !!

Wouldn't like having a rat colonny in my walls.. :|

[reverendsterlin]

lol, with rats if they can get their head through it doesn't matter how fat the rest of them is it will squeeze down.

[jwsporty]

Since the orignal posting, these 4 guys have grown up and are now staying in the cage, the funny thing is two from the next litter are doing the same but they don't seem to care if we are around or not. they openly travel back and forth between the two cages. NOT even the slightest interest to wander anywhere else..as long as they are close to mom and dad.. The bars just seem to be a minor hinderance in their travels..look at it as just one big cage..;)

[Lisa]

you might want to take some hardware cloth and cover the cage with it, we have a ferret cage and we're thinking of doing this so we can use it with the rats.