How To Stop Pet Rats From Peeing Everywhere?
If you are reading this, you most likely have a furry friend at home! Be it a dog, cat, or in my case, a cute little rat is my best partner when it comes to spending a fun day. However, their habits of peeing everywhere can mess things up.
How to stop pet rats from peeing everywhere? Litter training to your pet rats from their early days at your home is the most effective way to stop them from peeing everywhere. A small litter box with proper litter bedding and pee stones can help you out. Also, try to keep your pet rat away from the other pets of the house as rats can be very sensitive towards others.
I am someone who loves cuddling with my pet. The first few days of welcoming Goofy made me realize that it is quite messy to pet a rat, especially for someone with severe OCD like me. I did my research work and introduced my rat to the litter box on Goofy’s third day in my house. It was quite easy training him as I had no other pets to interrupt his free space. Besides, I’ve also used old clothes, shredded paper, or market-made pellet bedding and wood-shaving as litter bedding for better moisture absorption in his litter box. However, I hope that my research work and personal experience on reducing peeing are combined enough to help you pet your rat right.
Unlike cats and dogs, it is natural for rats to pee frequently. Yet, what strikes to be an issue with most rat owners is marking on the floors and carpets. Before we start discussing further, it is better to know the difference between peeing and marking that your pet rat may be making all over your house.
Difference Between Dropping And Peeing
A rat owner has noticed how their pets litter in different forms. Sometimes they create puddles and otherwise droplets. The idea behind both of the forms may seem to be a process of urination or excretion but they differ. Pet rats create puddles out of their cage often when they feel startled or unpleasant. On the other hand, the droplet is a natural process by which pet rats mark their surroundings.
Peeing for rats may be different than expected! If you witness your little furry friend creating sizable puddles of urine everywhere on the floor, carpet, bedsheets, or any unlikely space, it could be for multiple causes. The human friend must be aware that the puddles are a result of a full bladder after a long sleep.
Some fearful incidents or frightening objects around the pet could also be responsible. Adopting a pet rat, like any cats and dogs, needs your dear attention and love. Make sure to show some affection to your little friend or keep away things that may potentially scare your pet rat. This way you can save spooky items that turn into puddles!
We all develop habits as a result of coping mechanisms over the years. Droppings or droplets are something similar to the evolution of rats. Pet rats use their trail of droplets as a signature of communication among themselves.
Their litter often conveys personal information like age, sex, health, reproductive capacity, food habits, and lastly their territory. We as their human parents need to be responsible for their accessibility to our electronic gadgets, favorite spots like bed, couch, kitchen table, cupboard, etc as your pet rat can snuggle into these spots and create an unwanted mess or damage. However, if pet rat peeing tends to bother you here are some tips that you can apply.
How To Stop Your Pet Rat From Peeing Everywhere?
Well, I agree that the foul smell of pet rat puddles and dropping can irritate sensitive owners and irritate them as well. Petting a dog, cat, or rat is an experience on its own. If you want to be a pet rat parent, you have to accept the natural and biological factors that a rat develops to survive. However, if you have developed a deep love for your little furry friend yet can not withstand the strong smell of their pee, here are some tips for you to try.
Train Your Pet Rat Right
Training your pet properly from early days and playing with it outside of their cage can prevent them from marking their area with droplets. When your pet rat knows your space they naturally do not bother to pee everywhere and mark territory.
If still, they are doing so, behave friendlier with them and every time they pee show them the utilization of the litter box (I will discuss this in-depth in the latter part of the article don’t worry). Follow this method for a few days, you’ll get definite results. Remember, with practice, comes perfection.
Keep Other Pets Away
If you own more than one pet rat or a pet rat with other animals, it is more likely your rat will pee often. Rats are sensitive to smell in general. It can be your other pets that threaten your tiny furry friend and scare him which results in a ratty mess.
It is better to keep rats in cages in such situations. Inside the cage, you can use casual litter bedding materials as a preventive measure. I’ll always recommend going for more than one pet only if you can dedicate a separate room for at least one of them.
Using Rat Diapers
Folks can suggest you to opt for Rat Diapers too. But I’m afraid that it will hardly work for you. I’ve also tried them but it all ended up in quite a mess and irritated Goofy as well. Moreover, rat diapers can cause itching to your pet rat. Itching may lead your little friend to go out of your control. So these products may work for some people but I would recommend you to avoid rat diapers.
Besides trying these major techniques, some owners try to neuter their pets to avoid mess. However, the process can be very painful to your little furry friends and can even cost their lives in some cases. I would personally suggest not to opt for such options and have experience of petting a rat in natural ways.
Also, avoid using any perfume or essential oil to eliminate any foul pee smell, as it may affect the respiratory system of your pet. I have seen pets avoid peeing those clothes I wear while playing with them. This may be because they already find their smell on such items. One last thing that you should do if you own a pet rat is the Litter Box Training!
Litter Box Training For Your Pet Rat
Rats are very smart and curious animals by nature. If you have decided to pet a rat, start with housing him in a cage. Soon, you will see the rat has selected a corner of the cage to litter.
All you have to do is observe the behavior of your pet and show him a box to litter on during his early days at your house. Here what you can do is to notice in the initial days where your pet rat pee inside the cage, you can see that your pet rat chooses a corner of the cage to pee. You just need to notice the place and put the litter box there. Also make sure to buy a large litter box, so that your rat fits in the box and pee inside it. Otherwise, you might have some droplets outside of the litter box.
Your pet rat is smart enough to recognize the space and litter specifically there. Building this habit gets better by appreciating treats as well.
Once you have created the litter box, it is time to put in the right litter bedding for your pet rat. You can choose certain types of products for better moisture absorption.
However, while creating a litter box for your rat do not try to add litter bedding from your cat’s or dog’s litter bed. This process can cause hypersensitivity among your pet rats and end up in a health hazard.
Also, you can do one thing: you can sprinkle some cage bedding inside the litter box as well as all the poops and pee marks of the cage (Don’t forget to use hand gloves and wash your hands after). By doing this they have an idea where they are supposed to go for Poop and Pee.
If you further want better space and comfort for your rat, try adding Pee rocks. Pee rocks with their smooth, harmless surface will help you limit your rat to mark their area in a limited space.
When you bring a new pee rock make sure those are sterilized. You can do that by putting them into boiling water.
These are simple yet effective ways that you can introduce to stop the excessive peeing of your tiny furry friend and offer him a better space to freely live in. I hope my experience with Goofy, my pet rat, inspires you to create a better living area for your pet while stopping him from peeing everywhere.
Here is a video by Emiology, where she shows how to litter train pet rats.
Now I think some more questions arise in your mind okay let me touch down those too.
Is Rat Pee Harmful and Should I Worry About it?
The excretion of any animal is harmful in general. When it comes to pet rats, their pee or droplets smell foul and can bother sensitive noses. However, the feces is non-toxic if your pet is healthy and fine.
Rat pee can cause disease, infection, or harm humans in case the droplets come from an infected animal. One very common disease that is commonly spread by rats is termed HPS. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) can spread to humans causing severe respiratory problems. It is advisable to not smell rat urine, feces and clean them frequently to keep the space hygienic. (Source: CDC)
How To Clean Your Pet Rat’s Litter Tray?
In order to stop your rat from peeing everywhere and go only for the litter box/tray, the litter tray is needed to be taken care of regularly. You should scoop out the poop and soak & clean the urine properly at least once a day. Besides, to prevent ammonia spikes, clean your litter tray by every 4-14 days. However, don’t forget to replace your pets’ bedding with fresh products after each cleaning, and also don’t forget to put 1-2 poop and some old urine scent bedding after cleaning the tray so that your pet rat recognizes the place where he or she needs to pee or poop.
The frequency totally depends on the number of rats using the tray and the climate you’re living in. For humid weather, you need to take care of your rats’ litter tray by every 5-6 days and for dry climate type, you can delay up to 10 days. To clean the litter tray, you can use odorless unscented soup as your pets are quite sensitive to general soup odors. Moreover, for deep cleansing soak the litter tray in hot water for at least 5 minutes.
So I hope my experience and tips will help you to stop your pet rat from peeing everywhere, don’t forget to let me know how it goes in the comment section.
