Potty Talk

[valleykat]

There are some things I've been wondering, but have been reluctant to ask.  I hope I don't offend anyone by bringing up the subject of potty behavior.  We give Missy shredded paper towels which she totes into her igloo to make a nice little nest for herself to sleep in.  We have to clean them out daily because she pees all over them.  I thought animals didn't soil their den.  Does anybody else's rats do this?  At least its easy enough to clean.  I worry about the high concentration of urine in that enclosed space though because she has Myco.  As for poo, it's rarely in her igloo but I can't get her to use a litter box.  It seems like she doesn't even know that she's going because she'll be running around and the little raisins just pop out.  In other words, she doesn't pause to poo as dogs and cats do.  Is my rat just totally abnormal or what?  

[Louise]

Our 'babies' Hannah and Holley peed in thier igloo.  When we got Bogart and Willow they seemed to be very clean, they did not pee in their sleeping box, however once they got introduced to Hannah and Holley all that changed!  
I had to take away the igloo in the end for the same reasons you mention, the smell gets really concentrated in there, especially if four rats are sleeping in there a good part of the day.  Now they have blankets in a dollar store basket that I fixed up to the bars of the cage, it's almost like a crow's nest.  They still pee in them but at least there is more ventilation.

Funny thing, they used to be really good at pooping in their litterbox, but I hooked up a second basket under the first and that seems to be much more convenient when they wake up from their nap - it's the new litter box!

[Christy]

All of mine almost always poo in the litter box, but I don't think I'll ever get any of them to pee in it.  I use cloth in the igloos and baskets and have to change them daily or I would pass out!  With 9 rats there is a lot of marination of the blankets going on.  

[Ratty Corner]

My six have an igloo, although I've only ever seen five of them crammed into it at once. They have a cloth in the bottom of it which gets peed on, but the thing that amuses me is that when it gets too sodden, they push the cloth out of the igloo door. I take it away and replace it with a fresh one, which is then pulled back inside. I'm working on teaching them to clean out their own cage next...
Annette

[BlueMoonGoddess]

"I'm working on teaching them to clean out their own cage next..."

LOL That'll be the day!   Heehee! I can just imagine my girls hauling the garbage pail full of poo out to the compost pile.  

Maybe if there were holes poked/drilled in the igloo, it would have more circulation and less stinkiness?

[valleykat]

Actually, my igloo does have four holes about the diameter of a pencil in the top.  That was one reason I opted to buy it rather than stick to the Kleenex boutique boxes I'd been using.  Also because the cardboard was getting soaked and I kept running out of kleenex boxes.  With no bottom the igloo seems much more sanitary.  I place it on top of her bedding and then she drags in the shredded paper towels,  so there's plenty to absorb the pee.  

Well, it's good to know she's not that abnormal.  What's with that anyway?  I thought rats were known to be fastidiously clean animals.  Dogs certainly aren't, but they don't sleep in their waste.

[SonyaFancifulRats]

I don't know whats up with that either... I thought it ws mostly boys that peed their beds, at least the two females I had never did..but the boys are just gross about that.  Mine usually stop to poo, they go into a front corner and turn so their butts are facing the room.

[SCRAPPYSMOMMY]

LOL what a funny subject  ratty potty training
My rats always pee in their clubhouse which I crafted from a cardboard box.  When I clean the cage out, I remove all the yucky stuff and reuse the box.  I use paper and paper towels and old sox and such as bedding.  I cram it in the clubhouse until it is full, and they love to tunnel thru it.  It seems to absorb most of the pee.  Sometimes my rats smell and I have thought of eliminating the clubhouse because I dont like them sleeping in their own waste, but they are too attached to it...so, for now it stays.

[Aileen]

Our girls pee in the bed and every night we ask,"Who's pee'd in the bed?" and each blames the other.

We think it's Lilith, though, because a couple of times Phoebe has stuck her backside out of the hammock, hooked her tail over the perch and pee'd from on high!!

They always poop in their litter tray, Lilith sits in there for ages to the point I was going to offer her a magazine to read!

We use old t-shirts and sweatshirts in the hammock and change them every evening so the stench doesn't build up.

Aileen
and Lilith and Phoebe Ratson

[Anmllvr731]

Valleykat,
That's a great idea someone came up with. Do you have access to a drill, you could make all kinds of holes for ventilation. So much healthier and could keep igloo.
Good luck

[Rat-love]

So... I hadn't had a rat for a few years and had gotten cleaner in the meantime--plus I have roomates who care about that sort of thing now--AND I really don't like to have them locked away all the time, and wanted them to be able to roam hygienically--not the roomates, the rats--so when I got my two young ones about two months ago, I was really interested in getting them as well-potty-trained as possible. So, potty talk is important to ME at least.  
Anyway, I tried to very consistently take all of the recommended actions from various books (and which you probably know already but I'll list anyway): place the litter pan in the place where they normally go to the bathroom, "seed" the pan with fresh poop and urine-soaked litter, pick the ratling up in the midst of the act and place them in the pan (or directly thereafter), put any misplaced droppings in the pan, and such.  In addition, I try, when taking them off of my shoulder after some time walking around, to be preemptive by placing them directly in the bathroom.
I've been as consistent as I can, and the result has been that I have one 13-week old who is excellently potty-trained (she is allowed to run free in the bedroom now, since she returns to the cage to potty--my reward for her freedom is the fastidious transfer of all food from the cage to underneath the bed) and one ten-week-old who pees in the bed all the time.  I'm still working on her, just by doing those same actions over and over, and she has made good progress from her initial poop everywhere status.  Actually, similarly to what someone mentioned in a previous post, Sapphy, the older, followed suit when Petzl started peeing in the bed about two weeks after her arrival, and unfortunately this caused both of them to pee in MY bed for the first time today--Petzl did it, then Sapphy.  Since Sapphy's usually the free one, I know she was following Petzl's example as she has spent a great deal more time on the bed, and without any elimination.  Yech.  Interesting to hear another example of that.
At this point, I still have to pick up 1-4 poops a day and replace them in the pan (from the floor of the cage), and most of the time both rats will "hold it" while I'm walking around, and eliminate when I put them down into the litter: so overall, they're doing pretty well.   I haven't figured out how to stop the bed peeing, though; something that didn't work for me but might for you is this: when Petzl began soiling the bed, I tried putting tissues into it instead of socks, and would then put the dirty tissues into the corner pan.  She would just hop into it and chew on the clean edges of the tissues, then continue to pee in the freshly changed bed.  Oh well.  I may just have to resign myself to washing the bed each day.  I thought at first that leaving it once it had been peed on might keep further pee at bay, as they might have been marking it, but it just gets stinkier every day.
Anyway, how I do go on... hope this helps, and good luck with getting Missy's buns into the litter box!

[Ms. Jingles]

Mr. Jingles doesn't poop or pee in his igloo - marks it so I have to change his towel a lot. What I have noticed him doing is pressing his rear to the outside of the cage and doing his business with his butt hanging out Needless to say I have to check the floor every day!