Bathing rodents.

[Seneschal]

I bathe every two months or so, or whenever I see ears or tails looking dingy, or fur off-white. They get used to it, and I have one that even sits still for me to scrub him and sorta runs around and swims..! (Of course, I have a few who still do the freak out routine...) I use a little bit of palmolive and lukewarm water outside in a 41qt sterilite tub (lots of open space, and shallow) with some fresh water in a 10gal to rinse them in; they get washed quickly, rinsed faster and then handed to someone with a towel. XD I've never noticed a bad smell while washing them...and they always look nice and clean afterwards!!

But it works well to introduce new cagemates. Keeps people from fighting since they're too busy inspecting the newly bleached and rearranged cage and their new palmolive scented brethren to notice the addition.

[snakelady]

If I had pet rats I would surely bath them. I bathed my dogs and if needed my cats too. It always helped with smell, dirt, dander, etc.

For feeders? I guess I would if they really needed it.

[Michelle.C]

That is really weird. Seems every rodent owner forum I go on says bathing rats CAN cause enough stress to cause a myco flair. To be honest, I don't know from first hand as I've never had an issue with RIs. I've read several posts on rats acquiring RIs after being bathed and they were kept warm and toasty the entire process.

Not to mention, baths strip skin and fur of the natural oils, which can lead to problems as well. As I said, if you are careful and don't do it often, it doesn't hurt anything. I always tend to lean towards the safer side of husbandry, to me, rats don't really stink anyway.

The "Cinnamon" was acquired from a rodent breeder who had both Burmese and Cinnamon. I've posted on several forums and they all seem to think he isn't a Burmese, just a dark cinnamon. If you have any idea what color he is, that would be awesome, as I've posted on probably ten forums. So, don't know about that one. As for the Russian Blue, he came from registered Russians. I'll see if I can't dig up some pictures where the "Cinnamon" boy isn't wet. When he was a young man, everyone would have sworn he was a Burmese.

The Split Cap male turned three a few months ago. Sadly, Chip passed away a month ago. He was just a little chunk of man rat, I miss the little guy.

Can't say I've ever had a rat stress THAT bad over a bath that it caused a respiratory infection. A miffed rat, yes.

Your cinnamon looks like a burmese and your russian blue looks like an american blue. I had a double blue that was that color(white undercoat). I have a split capped boy who is over 3 years old named Corbin. They look alot alike

[ThyTempest]

I dont know if this was stated yet, but they have a bathing powder/duster for small animals. It is usually used for chinchillas, but it may work for rats?

[littleindiangirl]

I dont know if this was stated yet, but they have a bathing powder/duster for small animals. It is usually used for chinchillas, but it may work for rats?

um....no. Just dont.

[Gloryhound]

With over 40 breeders and god knows how many young ones at any given time the only time a rat gets a bath is if it has been pood on by a bunch of others. That rarely happens since we keep ours 0.2 + babies till weened in the big cement tubs and rotate males in.

The only exception to this is our pet rats and my daughters fancy rats (starting with hairless rats, and she uses my boy jack to do the stud work) she started breeding to sell. Probably in a week or so she will have her first ones for sale 3.2 hairless rats at 4 weeks of age.

On a side note my little hairless rat, Jack, doesn't smell anything like a wet dog after a bath.