How To Care For Your Pet Rat

A lot different to their stereotype rats are amazing, intelligent, sociable and loving creatures. The rats that are generally running through the streets are not the same type as those you get as a pet. There are many different types. They are also cleaner than most other rodents and hamsters and can be easily potty trained - not only this they smell a lot less too. When deciding to adopt a rat you need to realise that there is a lot of responsibility that comes with this as they are very sociable and need lots of tender loving care.

 

The essentials that you will need for a rat include:

• A Cage
• Water
• Food
• Litter Tray
• Chew Toys

Rat Cages

You could look at a rat cage as you do your own home by providing cage accessories for each area of their house. The kitchen should consist of food bowls and water bottles - making sure that the food bowl is either safely attached to the cage or it is ceramic. Make sure that their bathroom is well away from their food as it could potentially put them off their food. Provide them with lots of hides and places to sleep as they like to sleep in different places; try hammocks, igloos and anything else you can find. Use tubes and shelves as living space so they can sit and watch what is happening outside of the cage.

Water

Be sure that you supply your rats with plenty of fresh and clean water in their water bottle throughout the day. Give the water bottle a thorough clean once a week.

Food

Rat food should be available at any pet shop in the form of pellets or alternatively you can feed them a healthy balanced diet of vegetables and protein sources. Rats do not like to eat raw meat and if you feed them any kind make sure that it is cooked.

Litter Tray

Rats are extremely intelligent and can be easily trained to use the toilet in a litter tray and will continue to use this litter tray instead of the rest of the cage. As they are clean animals it is easy for them to recognise a litter tray and use it efficiently.

Chew Toys

As you may already know rodents teeth do not stop growing throughout their life span so it is imperative that you provide them a toy to chew on to keep their teeth at a healthy size. A non-toxic wooden toy is a fantastic way to do this and there are also various other toys that could be used similarly.

When you are purchasing a rat it is a good idea to not buy solitary rats as they can become extremely lonely so adopting them in pairs is excellent. Despite this, with consideration you can introduce a solitary rat to other rats if you make the effort to do so carefully.