What do your rats do during playtime?

[Deedles]

What do your rats do when they are out of the cage for playtime?

Please include sex (male or female) and age. =)

-Debi

[Dearpie]

My guys mainly just roam around the room, while coming back to us as home base every now and then... they just like to investigate things!  If there's a drink or snack out, they think that it's there for them and will help devour those.  They have a good time marking/piddling all over the place then checking out everyone else's piddle ..... just general stuff, nothing too exciting.  If we close the door and leave them in the bedroom, they run around and when we come back in, they come running or bounding over to us to let us know we've been missed! Now that is cute!

Oh, ages:  three older boys are just at a year or so.  The two newer boys are about 3 mos and haven't gotten off the couch when they're out! YET!  They prefer the bed where there's blankets and pillows to roam around.

[amymckee]

Make trouble!!!

Both my girls and boys like to investigate and chew. They play in the couch cushions, in the mega blok house that I made, and they usually harass which ever group is still in their cage. Now that its warmer, I leave the sliding door open, so that they can play on the balcony of my apartment. I have a pan of wheatgrass for them, and a planter box with rat-safe plants.

[Sabrina]

oh, yes, lots of trouble...

Ellie definitely loves running around my room.  However, she'll often go under my bed and chew up some old letters that I have saved under there.  I wonder if she has a nest going on...

and at this very moment, she is trying to sneak by my feet to go nibble on those computer cords!  NO! BAD RAT!

Love,
Sabrina and Ellie

[ckhs]

I have four girls,age? i think around6 to 8 months.They don't sit still for a second.Two of my girls spend alot of time grooming me AHHHHHHH.The other two are very busy.They all explore my room and i have had to move my computer out as that was there favorite chewing stop.they all play with me in spurts and i know they are through when they disappear into my drawers for a little nap,chew, whatever(i have no cloths that are not full of holes)i really need to come up with a new place for my wardrbe...any ideas?
ckhs

[Ali]

My 3 boys (they're about 5 months) tend to do exactly what Dearpie is describing! Mooch around! They don't get into half as much mischief as my girls did, but they do enjoy peeing a lot, and are currently chewing their way through the valence on the bed (too late to save it now!).

Even at their tender age they do a lot of flopping'n'sleeping, wherever they find a soft spot, even if it's just for 5 minutes. Then of course there's the obligatory wrestling and boxing matches.

When I go back in the room they'll always dash over (I like to think they've missed me but I know they're just after a milky drop.) They do a lot of getting under my feet. Every now and then they'll all go and sit hopefully back in their cage just in case it's tea time.... food, sleep, food, sleep....

I have to say that the girls had far more imagination and slightly more brain power!  

[Chic 2000]

My rats free-range abilities are somewhat limited.  But we do the them out every once in a while.  Fuzzy Belly is the explorer.  She wants to go everywhere and sniff averything.  The other 2 I think are scared of the wide open space.  Creamy will choose to huddel in a corner and stay there.  Wierd.  Coco is a little shy about open spaces to.  But she likes to get out and explore a little.

Now if only I could get a leash on Fuzzy Belly, then she can go around the house more often.  Haven't quite been able to do that yet.  Its wierd with rats.  Rats tend to be scared of new things.  But they will always go to investigate if it doesn't move suddenly, make loud noise, or jump.  If they've lived in a cage all their lives and that's the only space they know they tend to be scared of wide open spaces.  Like Creamy, just can't get her out of the corner for anything!  But on the other hand, Fuzzy Belly wants to go everywhere!  I have found that she will prefer to sit on my neck as I walk around the apertment.  I put Fuzzy Belly down and she will explore, sniff and always come back to me after a minuet or two.

Coco is learning, she is young.  About 2 months.  Fuzzy Belly is, I think, 6 months old.  And Creamy is 4 months.  They are all Females.  During playtime I pet them and scratch their fur and gently squeeze their squishy bellies .  I give them rides around the house on my shoulders.  The husband plays with them to.  Sometimes I will try new things and toys and let them grab at things tied to a string.  They like toys for about 5 minuets and then don't touch them again.  Always have to try new things.  For treats they get yogies and sometimes fruit-loops, cornpops, or some other kind of sweet kids cereal.  They love it, esspecaily cornpops.

[Idarat]

I agree with Ali, food, sleep etc except I think she forgot Poop.  This is a MAJOR passtime of my four 3mo old boys- perhaps there is a competition going on?  They have two speeds, off and maniacal so there is a good mix of wrestling/grooming, climbing up my pantlegs, playing with my hair and enticing me or other rats into games of chase.  But after a little bit of this, it is time for some serious zzzzzs, usually in a pile, crammed into a corner.  However, if I come back into the area where they are playing, they all rush over and stand on their hind-legs, kind of like human toddlers asking to be picked up.  I do love my boys

[Ali]

Idarat, that is all so true!!

You're right, I did forget poop. I think I could count on the fingers of one hand the times I found poo on the floor when I had the girls. I used to watch them go back into their cage to go to the loo. With the boys I need a regular clear up every night.

Toddlers is a great way of describing them!

Men are just so predicatable! LOL

[NatalieJ]

i really need to come up with a new place for my wardrbe...any ideas?
ckhs

In order to keep the rats away, you need to suspend them from the middle of the ceiling with fishing line.  

[Bonnie]

Well I'll begin by saying I let all 4 on the couch, and pile blankets for them to tunnel thru.

Templeton, my 1 1/2 year old (approximatly) roams around a bit, smelling here, and there. Then he jumps off the couch and runs around the house. I trust him not to make a total mess of everything, so I let him. (Plus he gets kinda mad if I don't let him) The bad part- he's learned how to climb up to the stove, so we try not to let him in the kitchen. I sacrifice my bed and bedroom so that I can save him from a possible hot stove.  ....he spends his free range time sniffing everywhere, finding crumbs on the floor, crawling in our shoes, tipping over my bedside drink (Right onto my pillow!) and whatever else he can get away with...

Quinn is probably a year old. He will run around and tunnel thru the blankets. After a while he'll stretch out and lay there. Not sleeping, sometimes dozing off, usually just kinda lounging.

The "babies" (born in January) run around playing tag, wrestling with eachother, then they run thru the blankets trying to hide from eachother, find eachother, wrestle (We hear squeaking from beneath the blankets... they also love to pounce on Quinn when he decides to stretch out.

I also want to note that they usually get on the end table, and create mischief to whatever I've left there. All 4 rats, that is. They have tipped over a cup full of pens and ran off with the colored ones, knocked over a picture frame, knocked things off the table (then looked down, stretched towards the floor trying to figure out where they went...).... and snatching any paper I have left there. I have found a napkin and an old reciept under the blanket where they decided to hide it from me

Anyways. What do they do during playtime? Create mischief

[WeeRaffins]

I let my buggers out on my bed to play. They hide under the blankets, wrestle with my fingers and run around chasing each other. They'll sometimes scramble over to me and beg to be petted. Basically, my rattie girls don't
'do' anything on the bed, but lately I've been noticing some wet spots....  

[Yresim]

Chew, explore, hide.  That pretty much sums it up.  

Ennoia rarely poops/pees while she is out, but accidents do happen.  

Exactly what she does depends on where she is.  If I have her in the bathroom, she runs around, goes everywhere, hides behind the toilet, and climbs all over my feet (a favorite pasttime).  If I have her in the art room, she climbs and hides and climbs and hides (she really likes playing in the small piles of stuff I end up collecting), and occassionally chews on things which get taken away if I think they're bad for her.  If I have her on the couch (rarely), she uses me as her personal playground.

Unfortunately, I let her push me around the first few times I had her out.  Now, when we are on the couch together, she likes to see what new positions she can push me into.  

Oops, I forgot.  Ennoia is now... lessee here, I wanna get this as close as possible... 23 months old (!!!), and is a female.  She has CRD and something else, so that may effect her activity level.

[Suebee]

My "new" boys will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. Rimmer is 2 years, 8 months.

Rimmer just hangs out. He doesn't do much of anything. But he's my old man... he's entitled.

The newbies are INSANE!

They climb ALL over me, wrestle (with me and each other, sometimes simultaneously), devour whatever treats I give them (usually wheatgrass, rice or veggies), jump up to the edge of the Grreat Wall, run around, hop around, try to yank the floor-covering sheet into the playpen (often working together!), steal tissues and mark everything -- including each other!

My grossout moment of the week -- I picked up Elwyn and kissed him, and my lips were WET! Someone had marked him, and I got a mouthful! *yarg*

[Ali]

My grossout moment of the week -- I picked up Elwyn and kissed him, and my lips were WET! Someone had marked him, and I got a mouthful! *yarg*

LOL! I wonder if it's cos they get fed up with being grabbed and kissed all the time? Maybe it's their way of getting their own back! I did that with Badger the other night. Except (even grosser) Roger had been on one of his humping sessions so I'm not even sure it was pee....

Last night was pretty yuk too. Badger (again) had done a long pee in his hammock, so I whipped it out, put it on the chair, put in a clean hammock, and sat on the chair.... talk about a wet patch.

I'm getting to that Smelly Old Lady stage where I'm beginning to be covered in pee more often than I'm not.

Nice........