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Make sure your rats have a suitable place to live

 

Rat in a shelter © Fotolia

Facts

  • Rats are active animals that need space to run, stretch up on their hind legs, climb and explore.
  • If rats are not able to control or predict events in their environment, they can become stressed.
  • Rats have an excellent sense of touch and are thigmotactic, this means they prefer to hug walls rather than enter wide open spaces. They do not like open spaces where they cannot hide.
  • Rats spend a lot of their time sleeping and like to hide and sleep in dark, safe shelters. Rats often have preferred resting sites.
  • Rats like to make their own nests and spend a lot of their time playing with nesting material.
  • Rats are highly curious and inquisitive, and are strongly motivated to explore.
  • Rats can hear sounds of higher pitch than humans (ultrasound), and extreme noise can be stressful for them. In extreme cases excessive noise could cause your rat to have a seizure.
  • Housing rats in hot or cold conditions, too damp or too dry, or without ventilation can cause discomfort and increase the chance of them becoming ill.
  • Rats are naturally most active at night.
  • Rats are very sensitive to light, and bright light can cause stress and harm their eyes – particularly albino strains (red-eyed white rats).
  • Cages with wire floors can cause foot injuries to rats.
  • Rats are clean animals and prefer to keep their toilet areas separate from their sleeping, resting and feeding areas.
  • Rats have a very good sense of smell.
  • Rats can easily squeeze through gaps in their cage, especially young rats.
     

Things you should do

  • Make sure you provide your rats with choice and control over their environment, by giving them freely accessible options and a predictable home-cage environment.
  • Make sure that you provide your rats with a suitable home-cage. See our factsheet on Home Cage (pdf 241kb).
  • Make sure you give your rats suitable shelters and places to hide. See our factsheet on Shelters (pdf 176kb).
  • Keep your rats’ cage away from strong artificial smells (e.g. air fresheners or smoke).
  • Avoid moving their cage unless absolutely necessary, as this can be stressful.
  • Make sure you keep their cage clean and do not allow urine and faeces to build up as this can cause health problems. See our factsheet on Cage cleaning (pdf 175kb).
  • Make sure that the area where the rat is housed is not too bright during the day, is out of direct sunlight, and is dark at night.
  • Make sure that the temperature and humidity of any place you house your rats is appropriate. See our factsheet on Home Cage (pdf 241kb).
  • Make sure that their home-cage is kept away from high pitched sounds, ultrasound, long term and unpredictable sudden bursts of noise. See our factsheet on Home Cage (pdf 241kb).