Escaped rats come back

[Tsanford]

Last night while collecting the feeders from my bins I had my 3rd escape since breesing them. The rat was a weanling who jumped over my hand and 6 feet down to the ground. It escaped into a small hole. Well what do you know... Just like the 2 rats before it, she came right back home to her rack. Just found her chilling in top. Straight to a sssserpents ssstomach.

Who else has had similar experiences?

[Asherah]

I had an adult female escapee that sat on top of her bin until I put her back. The kids also let loose an entire colony of mice. 2 were actually inside the bin and two were sitting close by outside. I only had to chase down one lone female who had migrated to the living room under the tv. Still can't believe we found her, let alone all of them.

[wolfy-hound]

Happened with my rats too. The only ones that escaped and refused to be caught were the self-black producers. That line got culled entirely.

I had one female breeder who got out and came wandering all the way to the far side of the house to find me and sit on my foot. I took her back and gave everyone lots of treats.

Old Man rat used to jump out of the bin, climb up me to sit on my shoulder every day when I opened his bin.

The rats don't hate their bin homes. They seem pleased with them as long as they have food water and clean bedding.

[SamO]

When we first started keeping rats, my daughter turned the corner into our rat room to find three females who had chewed/snapped their strip ties and taken the wire mesh off their cage. They found a box of rubber gloves and were happily shredding them and stuffing them into their nests.

They didn't go far, just far enough to find cool bedding. They didn't even jump down from their shelf.

That's when we discovered metal strip ties. No more escapes since then.

[GoingPostal]

I had three rats escape last week, one I caught right away, the other two I just left the cage open and they moved back in. Seems to be the easiest way to catch an escapee.