i think my kids are..

[ADEE]

stressing out the rats.. they live in their room and for the most part it works out but i occationally hear my 3yr old tapping on the enclosure, he gets reprimanded for it and knows it hurts their "ears" to do that to them.. there are lots of things to play with but over all they dont. i have hung up their pvc from the screen top and attached a home made hammock to the end of it so they can feel more secure and have a way to lay somewhere other than on top of each other. they all huddle either in the tube or under a shirt most of the time were home. we usually bring the rats out after the kids go to bed for exercise but today my hubby brought out remy while the kids were awake and she was a nervous wreck! that ended in under 5 minutes with me holding her talking, petting, exc until she seemed to calm down, i didnt want to jus tput her away and risk her maybe biting next time we tried to take her out.. while she was nervous she did put her mouth on my husband but didnt bite, almost as a warning to him. i of course put her away and put a blanket over their enclosure.. i think the kids were just excited and a bit rambuncious.

does thsi happen to anyone else? am i the only one with small children here?

[lord jackel]

My daughter has 2 pet rats in her room and I swear they are never in their cage always being messed with. Has been that way since she got them...now it seems they sit by the cage door and wait for her to let them out. (reminds me of the old movies where convicts sit at the jail door and bang the can on the bars with that sad sack look )

[Kaaa]

My son (2yrs old) did that with my BP tanks, he would go into our room and tap and bang on the glass and i was afraid it would stress them out. So what did i do! I went to a pet store and bought some Goldfish and a tank, HE LOVES FISH!!! everytime where out he is always facinated with them so i put it out publicly in the Living room so he would stop running into our room and banging on the glass.

[ADEE]

we got the rats to keep them from bothering the snakes.. now we have to get fish so they leave the rats alone? what about the damage and discomfort to the fish being banged on? just asking... please dont take it as being rude it is nice to hear there are other little ones with critters

[lord jackel]

The "issue" with my kids (9 and 4 now) was they were really interested in the animals (rats, snakes, fish, etc.). This caused them to bang on the tanks, open the tubs, poke fingers in cages, etc.


What I ended up doing after the 1000's time telling them to stop messing with the animals was to just give up and let the kids "play" with them. So my 4 yr old is now my official snake and rat cleaning helper. He holds all the snakes while their tubs get cleaned, plays with the rats (loves the pinkies) while I clean their tanks. Helps me clean and service the tank. I basically make him help...he enjoys it but after we are done he wants nothing to do with them.

Solved 2 issues - him messing when I wasn't around and me needing an extra pair of hands...he has now learned that all he has to do is ask and I will get the snakes/rats out for him to see/pet.

My daughter has to do everything for her pet rats and she has learned what they like and don't like.

win/win in my house

[littleindiangirl]

You bought the rats as pets right? Not as breeders, but for pets so your kids would leave the snakes alone? I think you need to set up some tougher borders there. Not to sound rude, but if the rats are supposed to be pets for the kids, there need to be some ground rules before your kids can handle them. While rats can be very timid and shy, after a few weeks they should be very comfortable with being held and played with. Just daily supervision of your kids with the rats should be enough. Also, how old are your kids? Are they responsible enough to understand when no means no? Maybe they arent ready yet by themselves, and should not be allowed near the rats until you have time to settle them in.


But again, its no fun to play with an animal and make your kids off limits. I really suggest some ground rules before your kids are allowed to play with them. My little brother and sister [8 and11] understand that they aren't allowed near my animals when i'm away. But they can take them out for an hour when I'm around and let them. They also know that these animals are fragile, and need to feel safe.

Just my opinion

we got the rats to keep them from bothering the snakes.. now we have to get fish so they leave the rats alone? what about the damage and discomfort to the fish being banged on? just asking... please dont take it as being rude it is nice to hear there are other little ones with critters

[Ginevive]

Mine are more active at night, and spend the daytime hours curled up together sleeping. Maybe you could put a blanket over the cage during the day? Being careful about not cutting off all ventilation or overheating, of course.. or if it is too hot, newspaper put around the cage sides can work too.

[frankykeno]

Well it's not unusual that the rats would be piled on each other sleeping most of the day. This isn't stress behaviour, it's lazy rat behaviour. They aren't fully nocturnal but tend to be more active in the evening, early in the morning and at night so if they are crammed in a tube snoozing during the day, that's pretty typical of rats. Also they are still young rats and new to your home, so they are going to be a bit jumpy for awhile.

Set basic rules which I'm sure you already have and I'd suggest perhaps buying a couple of pretend rats. With Ratoutille being a huge kids movie right now, there's tons of rat toys on the market. Role play with the fake rat for the youngest so he can learn the right way to treat the rats and tell him when the rats are sleeping, he can "practise" with his toy rat (help him make a box to keep it in and so forth).

[ADEE]

You bought the rats as pets right? Not as breeders, but for pets so your kids would leave the snakes alone? I think you need to set up some tougher borders there. Not to sound rude, but if the rats are supposed to be pets for the kids, there need to be some ground rules before your kids can handle them. While rats can be very timid and shy, after a few weeks they should be very comfortable with being held and played with. Just daily supervision of your kids with the rats should be enough. Also, how old are your kids? Are they responsible enough to understand when no means no? Maybe they arent ready yet by themselves, and should not be allowed near the rats until you have time to settle them in.


But again, its no fun to play with an animal and make your kids off limits. I really suggest some ground rules before your kids are allowed to play with them. My little brother and sister [8 and11] understand that they aren't allowed near my animals when i'm away. But they can take them out for an hour when I'm around and let them. They also know that these animals are fragile, and need to feel safe.

Just my opinion

yes the rats are pets. and we dont allow our children to hold them by themselves. we have set up ground rules and our older boy is required to help me clean their water everyday and supply them with fresh food since he picked out miss big ears, otherwise i really got them for me . we do let him come in and watch them play when we do rat free time if hes up when we take them out but overall "holding" hasnt happened yet as i dont want the rats to get scared nor do i want one of them dropped out of excitment. they are 1½ & 3 so they are very young children. as for ground rules its not like i can lay down the law to a 3yr old we just remind him that we have to be calm and quiet or no rat play time. they are really good children but get excited when they start running around we have started doing furry friend kisses so they can be close and pet them, we have the rats tickle their noses with their whiskers (we do nighty kisses to the rats, just close enough for their whiskers to touch their face while we hold them and only if the kids are quiet and calm) it has gone over well in that retrospect its just that today everyone was a bit too excited, just gotten up from naps and the rats were out playing

great suggestions jo, we might just do that