Ahhhhhh!!!!!! - Page 2

Davey213 · 01-31-05, 03:28 PM

For potty training what i did was i put a small dish with cat litter and just threw there crap in the dish as i seen it.. eventually they figure out thats where i wanted them to go.. (i know you asked saphire, but i know this way works..)
Davey

Linds · 01-31-05, 04:50 PM

Thanks for the tip Davey! I would love to have my pets litter trained. I'm gonna give it a shot... lol... hopefully they don't trash the litter box like they do their cage though

Rowdy little bunch

sapphire_moon · 01-31-05, 09:53 PM

Never use reg cat litter unless it is paper based, the clay stuff is extremely dusty and will cause respirtory infections, use aspen shavings, Yesterdays news, or something of the like.

But yes, it is basicly what I did, but since I have boys that will scent mark anyways, I appreciate it anytime they use the litterbox! lol They have 2 in their cage (a martins cage, www.martinscages.com the R-695)

I pick up their "raisens" and put them in the litter box whenever I find them. Of course this doesn't stop them from going in their hidey boxs.

Davey213 · 01-31-05, 10:28 PM

Didn't know about the cat litter causing respiratory infections... never thought about it..thanks for correcting that shapire.. pretty important peice of information.
Davey

sapphire_moon · 02-01-05, 02:45 PM

no prob, the only reason I use it for the cats is becuase they aren't on it/around it constantly, they can get away from it, rooms away

but rats in a cage can't (well, not unless it's a HUGE cage) plus rats tend to eat things they aren't supposed to

so I found Yesterdays News is great, it's recycled newspaper that has used soy ink, so IF they do eat it, it won't hurt them.

plus you don't want your breeders to get sick anyways.

Davey213 · 02-01-05, 10:03 PM

Saphire i remember you had posted a site on a thread with a large list of good foods for your rats and things to avoid.. it may not have been you, but im pretty sure.. but i cant seem to find that thread anymore.. if you remember what im talking about can you post that link again?
Thanks,
Davey

Linds · 02-01-05, 10:19 PM

LOL I'll have to find something else to use I guess since I use Yesterday's News as their regular substrate (pets that is, feeders and breeders just get pine). How do you guys prevent your rats from chewing and trashing their litterboxes? Has even the 'dust-free' formulas been shown to cause problems in rats, or just regular clay litter? The stuff I use for my kitty is more than 99% dust-free, which I would equate to the same levels, if not less, than most wood shavings.

Davey213 · 02-01-05, 10:34 PM

For me it just took patience.. lol, my female always flipped it at first, but i just kept picking it up and placing it back...over and over again... lol. they catch on fast enough though, my male caught on almost right away..depends on the rat.. they all have different personality's.. but if you're using paper at the bottom maybe try taping it down onto the paper.. or something along those lines... just make sure the rats cant get to the tape.. and as for the dust you'll have to wait for saphire or someone else to answer that.. cause i havnt really looked into the dust issue yet.. saphire just informed me about it
Davey

sapphire_moon · 02-02-05, 10:58 AM

even the 99% stuff is bad (especially if it is clay stuff, and they tend to eat the swheat scoop stuff now out there), use aspen shavings for their litter, or aspen on the floor and YN in the litter boxs (since they already go to the bathroom in it they might go to the litter box when moved?)

Personally my rats are spoiled

they have a fleece baby blanket, in the base of the cage (a martins), with a litter box, and a litter box on the middle floor.

Here is what I feed (I use natural balance instead of nutro though)
http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html

and the "foods" list.

http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html

The "safe", "not safe", and "feed with caution" lists are near he bottom.

stopping them from trashing/chewing their litterbox.
You can't really, they usually chew on everything you don't want them to.

lol

OR you could get the "no chew" spray and spray it where they chew. (make sure not to get any in their food/face)

Linds · 02-02-05, 12:03 PM

I have chew stop here (both spray and brush-on forms) I will give it a try. I think I might just use shavings for their litter box, or something else if I can find. I won't go back to using any sort of shavings as their general substrate, they are housed near the end of my bed and right by the cats food and water, so shavings, etc tend to end up all over that stuff when used

I've had good experiences with the Yesterday's News pellets staying in the cage

How long did it take your rats to become trained?

sapphire_moon · 02-02-05, 02:33 PM

trained? them? lol, they are "semi" trained. Meaning they've trained me to pick up raisens anytime I see them

lol. They go in the litter boxs sometimes, but other times they are to lazy

(try fleecy material, like from a remnants bin and stuff like that, nothing with holes to big or they will get their toenails stuck.) but that may be a pain with untrained ratties.

What I did to even get them this far, was I filled the base of their cage with YN, then after about 2 wks (with about 3 "scoopings" and one "partial" clean) I took it all out, put some clean YN in a litter box, put some "dirty" YN in the litter box (you need it to smell like a rat toilet

) and they are slowly doing better.

honduranfreekk · 02-03-05, 04:12 PM

I have to agrea they DO make great and funny pets and coming from a person who HATED rats not long ago lol.
The wife strikes again and saved these two

She even has baby pics lmao

Smokey

Kelvin@Brigitte

sapphire_moon · 02-03-05, 07:14 PM

Oh I love the blue one! lol

honduranfreekk · 02-03-05, 07:33 PM

I love the blue one also.He is sooooo friendly.Comes running out of the cage and up the side and on to the bed when you are there lmao.

Kelvin@Brigitte

Mark Jones · 02-08-05, 05:01 PM

Someone mentioned cat litter... Try the new crystal type cat litter. No dust, no odor, great stuff!