When will he be old enough to "hold it"?

[RandomTree]

Monkey poops all over me. At first it was fear-pooping... but now he's a well adjusted happy little boy who follows my hand around the cage begging to come out and play. And he still poops everywhere.

I put him back in the cage every 20 minutes to encourage him to "do his business" there instead of on my lap. Any time he starts to go potty on me, I pick him up and tell him "no!" and then put him in the cage so he can do it there. This worked very well with the girls and with Olaf, but Monkey still goes when-ever and where-ever he wants to.

Are baby rats not able to "hold it"? How old will he need to be before he can learn to go potty in the cage and not on me?

Or is it not an age thing? Is there a better way to teach him?

[anita1216]

Rats generally just do as they please Very few will respond to "no" and things like that. While they are incredibly intelligent creatures, you can't expect to train them as you would a pup.

My boys as they have grown older will still poop out of the cage, but rarely do they poop on me. Someone may have a better answer for you.

I would imagine some rats are just naturally inclined to go back to the cage and do their business.

[scout]

Eventually he may learn with just what you're doing - minus the "no!" part. When you catch him in the act, put him in his litter box. The idea is to get him to associate elimination with the litter box. You might also consider putting a litter box handy where you're playing with him so you can get him there faster. Put some of his poos in there so he associates those with the litter box. Most rats, like your girls and Olaf, are trainable this way. Some either never make the association or maybe just don't care. But keep trying. He may eventually get it.

[nevadamoon]

Off topic, but I have a rat named Monkey, too.  Only, she's a girl, and probably the only rat to never NOT poop on me.

Some of it could be age related, but I don't know how much it could really be 'trained'.  I've had young rats that never pooped once they got out of the fear-pooping stage, and some that are now pretty big guys who will still randomly poop on me.  For some reason, my Quill-rat will always perch on my shoulder (Inside my sleeves if he can get there) and nap, and sooner or later I'll feel raisins going down my arm.