litter training

[cocolocorat]

Does litter training rats realy work and is it easier than cleaning the cages? if so than how do u litter train them

[gonefrizzin]

heres a link to a good article about litter training:

http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm#litter

Dont forget you can always use the "search" function on this forum to find quick answers to your questions 

[SR&P]

My rats litter trained themselves. One day they decided that the Carefresh was their bedding, and cleared a nice spot from carefresh, then peed and pooed all over the bare plastic. 

As far as it being easier, I have to clean the cage more often, the litter pan is small, and therefore gets smelly faster. However, I use Critter Litter, and I only have to clean the cage twice a week.
Here's my system-
1. Dump contents of litter pan, wash out litter pan with hot water and soap, then pick out any soiled carefresh or poops outside of the litter tray. (they've decided that this little 16 cm space is also where their litter pan should be, and poop there even when I put in the litter tray, but I'm too lazy to train them not to, but I'm sure I can; plus they still scent mark)
2. Dump out carefresh, wash plastic pan, dump out 5/6 of litter.

[Fnordia]

(I hope it's okay to bump this thread- I thought that might be better than starting a new one!)

A few questions on litter training- how young should they be to start?  I'm wondering if it's too late for my girls, they're both about a year old.

Also, how often do you clean your rat cages?

We have 2 girls in a Martin's 695, and we clean it completely once a week.  We lay down newspaper under carefresh bedding, and then we can just roll it up and stick it in the can!  (Except when they're "helping" and tear through the paper sometimes!)

They have a bad habit of standing in the very top back left corner of the cage, and peeing from there.  It splatters the cage bars below and the wall, making up have to actually scrub the cage bars itself every week.  I think that if they were litter trained, we could easily get away with just changing the litter pan often, and not have to drag the cage out to the yard to scrub all the time.

Thoughts?

[bex]

You could try putting a litter box there where they like to pee.  It might work and they'll pee in it or they might find a new exciting place to pee. But it seems like it would be worth a try.

My rat pretty much always used the same spot so it was easy.  Now she pees next to the litter box but otherwise uses the box.  I'm hoping to get her peeing in the right place too.

[Fnordia]

I was thinking about that, but it's also the same spot they like to sleep!

[Mischief_Love]

When I first trained mine i removed all of the bedding and put a small amount in a cardboard box and they automatically started using it....then i changed it to yesterdays news. A while later I started using bedding again (eco earth now) and they still use the litter box.