Pet rat not drinking enough

Question
QUESTION: My girlfriend has a pet dumbo ear rat, we think she is only a couple of months old.
It seems that our new pet is not drinking much? we have a water bottle thing and also we have put out a bowl of water, both are changed everyday.
  We are assuming she is not drinking much because the last week my girlfriend put in some torn up tissue paper in the cage, and the rat everytime pushes out her bedding (like a fabric dish cloth) and pushes all the toilet tissue in.
Now we can see that the urine is quite dark, do you have any ideas?

Also she keeps urinating in what she sleeps in?


ANSWER: Hi Duane

Next time you fill her bottle, note how many ounces it is filled to and when you give her fresh water, check to see how much was used. This will give you an idea of what she is drinking.

Also, I wouldn't keep a bowl in there because you may not realize how much she is drinking if she spills some of the water out and you may think she drank alot when in reality, it spilled out instead.

As for the tissue paper being preferred over the fabric; rats love to shred up things to make nests. They will shred cardboard into strips and paper towels, toilet tissue  and     newspaper (soy ink only) are a hit, too.          She probably didn't like the cloth because she could not shred it. She also may have urinated on it and didn't want to keep it in her little hidey house or whatever she sleeps in. As for her urine appearing darker, it appear darker since your looking at it against white tissue. Rodent urine usually is more concentrated looking.
Last but not least, the fact that she sleeps in soiled bedding is pretty normal. Rats tend to not mind sleeping in a urine soaked nest but if they find a little pooh turd they don't hesitate to toss it out of the nest. My rats are litter trained but they still end up getting a little damp in their nest, possibly urinating when they are asleep, wetting to bed, so to speak.

Just to be sure the little one is getting enough water aside from keeping track of the marks on the bottle etc....you can also offer her some water through a syringe and put it in the side of her mouth, letting her suck it out.  Also, offer her some crushed water melon., or soft fruits that are watery  such as pears. You can get this by using baby food fruits since they hold alot of water.

Also, I wanted to ask, some people put vitamins in rats water  and this can alter the taste to the point the rat may not like it and stop drinking  so I wanted to be sure you did not do that.

Hope this helps!


Sandy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: No there are no added vitamins in the water.
Is this advisable and if so what do i need to get?
She is fed a little fresh veg everyday.

And how do you litter train rats?

Thank you for your help its been great!

Answer
Hi Duane


No, you don't have to add any vitamins to her diet as long as she is eating a good diet, low in protein and fats.

As for litter training, its pretty simple really. You remove all the litter from the bottom tray of the cage and put it only in a litter pan. I use an old rectangle tupperware container but anything will do as long as it holds the litter in, they can get in and out easy and its big enough so they can dig around and move around in a circle.
Anyhow, put all the litter in the litter pan and pick up the little poops and put it in the litter box, too. Even if she keeps pooping around the cage, put the poops in the litter box.  Eventually she will use it. If there is a specific place she always seems to go, that is where you can put the litter box.
It may take time for her to pick up on using it and she may only use it to poop in it, sometimes both. My boys never poop anywhere but in the litter pan but they still pee in corners of the cage and also the litter pan too.  I would rather they did both but have to at least be happy that they are not smelly poops all over the cage!!
Being she is just a few months old, she may not pay attention to it for a while and in fact, she may sleep in it at first.  LOL
However, if she keeps seeing poops in there, she will get the hint and as she gets older she will  show more interest!