Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Don't know if this belongs here or not, but this is a weird one. I am in the process of building a rodent cabinet including an auto watering system. In the mean time the mice are on bottles and the rats have bowels. One of the rats, the male I think, has taken to wetting pieces of bedding, shredded paper, and stuffing it in the hardware cloth overhead, kind of like building a roof. Anyone ever seen this kind of thing before? They are kind of freaked I think because of all the activity going on around them. Although the other colony I have doesn’t seem stressed at all.

Bruce

LOL I just had to respond to this one! I have had two rats, over time, who - when I'd transfer them into a small (wire) cage for traveling (these would be the rats that also "worked" part time as classroom pets) would immediately begin weaving strips of shredded tissues into and around the top of the cage. I'd put them into the cage, place them in my car, and by the time I arrived at school, the cage looked like it had been festooned with party streamers!

The best reason I could come up with was that rats/mice are animals who, in the wild, most likely would live in burrows or narrow, low enclosures.... so now, when given the opportunity (such as being in a cage that had a 'ceiling' low enough for the animal to easily reach it), they'd try to pad the ceiling just as they do the bottom of the cage.

It could very well be a response to stress, but could also just be an instinctual behavior.

It's far too easy to anthropomorphize with these critters, though, for me anyway, and by golly we sure had a good laugh every time these rats would start in with their interior decorating!

=)

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Rebecca
TSBabe66@hotmail.com
Honored to moderate at Snakefeeders, a great place to buy/sell/trade feeder animals. Come check us out! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/snakefeeders/

I use newspaper as bedding because it is cheap. Wehn the newspaper gets smelly, the mice like to stick them on the roof of the low lying cages (I have one lab style mouse tub). They seem to be expelling the smelly newspaper. So, sometimes what I do is take the smelly pieces that is stuck to the roof and throw them out.

When it is fresh newspaper, they don't do it. When the newspaper is yellow with urine, they do it. Same with water dish (I have some water dishes). They throw dirty newspaper in the water.

It is their way of keeping the cage clean by getting rid of dirty newspaper.

With the water dish, it is a pain in the butt. But as long as I change the water once or twice a day, things are okay. Eventually, I will get to making a better system.

cheers.
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.