Hat Your Rat!

Viking hat from A Hat for my Rat

I recently stumbled upon this awesome online store, A Hat for my Rat. If you've ever wanted to outfit your rats in tiny accessories, whether for a photo shoot, celebration, or just for fun, this is the place for you! They have a huge selection of hats and costumes available and have clearly had fun with naming every one. Considering that these are all hand-made items, the pricing and shipping are also quite reasonable. And, on top of everything else, they do custom orders, so you can get the perfect outfit to match your (or your rat's) vision.

I'll definitely be ordering a few things for my boys to wear on Halloween. Be sure to let me know what your favourite ratty outfits are.

Keeping a Clean House and Home

Cage base and accessories soaking in hot soapy water

As a general rule, it's a good idea to spot-clean your rats' cage daily and then do a thorough clean each week. For me, this entails a full soak and scrub of the cage base and any loose items, such as shelving or dishes, that can get wet. Then, once a month or so, I also thoroughly wipe down the cage bars to remove anything that may have gotten on them while Goma and Potato were running around.

There are a lot of different ways you can clean your cage and the method you choose to use should be based on whatever's most convenient for your living situation. For example, in the summer, I'll usually disassemble the cage outside and set the rats up an outdoor play area while I literally hose everything down. I put some mild dish soap into the cage base to wash anything that needs a deeper clean. In the winter and on cooler days, however, I tend to load everything into the bath tub for an easy wash and rinse. The latter is clearly the better choice for someone living in an apartment or without easy access to a yard.

The size of your cage is also a big factor. When Potato and Goma were still little, they had a much smaller cage than they do now, and it was easy enough for me to carry it outside or to the bathroom. Their second cage was taller, but still skinny enough for me to manoeuvre fairly easily. Now, though, their cage is much too large for me to easily move by myself - I can manage it, but I need some help if I don't want to get stuck in doorways or bang into walls. I imagine a large ferret cage or something similar would require a lot more work to move or take apart.

One great thing about taking everything out to get cleaned is that, on top of the cage looking a lot nicer for a while and your rats getting out for a bit, you can also take the opportunity to reorganize the overall layout. Changing your rats' environment is a great way to stimulate them for a while as they figure out where everything's been moved to. Although, whenever I clean my rats' cage, they always act like they've never seen it before, reorganized or not.

For more information and suggestions about cage cleaning, check out this page from Rat Guide.

Fishing for Peas

If you've never let your rats fish for peas, I highly recommend it. The basic set-up can be found here. As you can see from watching Goma in the above video, fishing peas out of a bowl of water is quite the engaging activity for rats. Not to mention that it's a great way to help them associate getting wet with positive outcomes. I haven't graduated my boys to deeper water yet since, as I've mentioned before, they haven't had the best experiences with water in the past. Anyway, if you've been trying to think of a new game for your rats, definitely give this one a try (who doesn't want to play a game where the prize is food every time?).

As a side-note, my apologies for the upside-down video. I corrected it, but it flipped back after uploading, so I'm not quite sure how to fix it at this point.

How to Make a Water Rat

If your rats are anything like mine, they probably aren't huge fans of the water. If you'd like to change that - to help your rats cool down in the summer, teach them new tricks, help them cope with baths, or just to provide them with some more engaging activities - then check out the video above. I think it does an excellent job of demonstrating appropriate set-ups while also stressing the importance of taking it slow and gradually easing your rats into the activity.

I may or may not give this one a try. I suspect that Potato and Goma have had one too many baths for them to ever be completely comfortable in the water, no matter how much time I give them to get used to it. Then again, they seem to have no problem fishing for peas, so there may be hope yet.

Potato Tests Out a DIY Harness Prototype

I decided to give yesterday's harness tutorial a try this morning. I have learned a couple of things from this experience.

The big one is that the tutorial video suggests cutting 60" lengths of embroidery thread will provide you with more than enough. This might be true for some people, but, if you're like me, the last two inches of thread are a write-off if you want to be able to tie them off. Therefore, after an hour of work, I wound up with a harness the perfect size for a juvenile rat, which doesn't remotely describe Potato or Goma anymore. I would highly recommend cutting at least 65" or more for an adult rat. On the bright side, I now have a pre-made harness if I pick up any younger rats in the near future.

After that small disaster, I decided to make a test harness so I could get a better idea of the right length "rope" to make in the future. As you can see from the video of Potato above, it seems to work fairly well, so I might recommend this method for a quick fix if you need a harness in a hurry. Basically, I just cut some twine (since it's thicker than normal string) a bit longer than I thought I needed and measured it by wrapping it around one of my (very squirmy) rats. I then tied the ends together with a tight square knot and wrapped the knot in electrical tape to keep it from pulling too much. The rest was done the same as in the tutorial.

A fun side note: Apart from running around like a mad rat, Potato also seemed convinced that he could get the harness off by vigorously washing his ears. Needless to say, it was both an adorable and very silly sight to behold.

DIY Rat Harness

In the past, I've attempted to use store-bought harness for my rats. You know the ones - they come in a variety of sizes for rats, ferrets, rabbits, and so on, and are built like tiny rodent vests. If you've ever bought one, you also know that rats can wiggle out of them like nobody's business. The main reason for their easy escapes is that their tiny front legs can just slip right out of the holes in the vest and then it's just a matter of squirming until the rest of their body is free. Every so often I go back and try the vest again, thinking that maybe they just weren't big enough when I first bought it. Nope; they're fatties now and it still definitely does not fit.

If you've had the same issues, you may be excited to see this awesome tutorial for a DIY rat harness. Because it wraps around their body and neck separately and meets in the middle, it's a lot tougher for them to get out of it. I imagine it's probably also a lot more comfortable since there isn't nearly as much bulk. I know what I'm doing this week.