# My rat is making free-range time impossible?



## RavenTheRat (May 28, 2015)

Hi guys! So one of my rats (Who is actually in my lap right now eating a cheerio) is a perfect free ranger- always behaves, always stays on my bed during playtime. I take her out for hours, we have fun, she eats cheerios, pees on me, we cuddle, she pees on me, and she goes to bed.

My OTHER rat is a different story. I've tried everything. Baby playpens, Cardboard blocks. I've tried distracting her, I've tried giving her 6 things at once to do, but she ALWAYS tries to escape. ALWAYS. She chews, jumps, climbs. AS SOON as I take her out, she wants to slip out of my hands and run. She's NOT afraid of me- she loves being pet and cuddled and being given treats. But she just wants to escape when I take her out and I just don't know what to do.So she never gets the hours of playtime that Raven gets. I don't know what to do....... she's been like this since I got her a year ago. I thought it might get better but it just hasn't.........


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

Rats are naturally intelligent, curious creatures, some more then others. And once they've got exploring on their mind theirs not much you can do to stop them. I went through the same problem when I first got my rats, some times you just have to compromise. At first my rats where content with staying on my bed during free range for the first couple weeks but then they started venturing on the floor and that was it. Once they got the taste for exploring their was no stoping them, of course I still tried even with cardboard like you but gave up. Thats when i Decided to rat proof my room and allow them to free range the entire space. And now they spend most their time in my room free to go in and out as they please and its alot better that way. But To be completely honest it wasn't as easy as just moving cords and crap out of reach. When they where younger and more destructive I had to make some bigger changes which encluded tileing my bedroom floor and putting steel plates on my wardrobe door, Which I payed for myself (i was 17 at the time and I live with my mum and siblings) They are past their hyper destructive stage now that they're getting older and they can be trusted unsupervised for hours. The funny thing is nowadays they preffer to sleep on my bed through most of the day rather than run around. I'm not saying you should completely change your room to suit your rats but maybe you could allow them to run around for a bit while you supervise them. If you don't want to use your room you could use athother safe enclosed room, like a bathroom. because trust me the only way you can get them to stop going on the floor is to keep them in the cage 24/7 and thats no good for the rats.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

I'd say as long as there are no places where she could slip into a wall or out of the room, just do as fu-inle said and rat proof as best as possible. Rats know when there's something beyond a blockade and usually make it their one and only quest in life to see what's on the other side. I have one girl who is so determined to defeat the door to my office (where I exit the room on occasion) that anytime she sees me walking that way she will literally get in front of me and wait by the door to try to sneak through when I open it. She knows there's more out there!


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Certain rats get bored easily... and take free range to another level...





















Now Fuzzy Rat was absolutely brilliant and truly amazing in how competent she got... she would actually take off and explore on her own outdoors... the third photo was taken as she was slinking off on an adventure of her own when she thought no one was looking... but she was a terror indoors, when she got bored she shredded wires and stole stuff and generally tore the place up... In the end it becomes a trade off... Some of the rats we have had became great indoor rats, never did any damage and were very content to just chill and hang out.... then there was Fuzzy Rat who loved a good fireworks show... She once crawled out of our car window while we were at highway speed to surf the New Jersey Turnpike on the side view mirror... Imagine my surprise when I looked in the mirror to change lanes and saw fur butt and rat tail flapping in the breeze... And rat nose down whiskers blown back, squinting into the wind... Really, can you imagine a rat like that staying on a bed... Never happened... Until the day she passed away, she always had something to do and someplace to be, until she literally collapsed with exhaustion... It didn't happen often, but then she would nap on us until she was ready to go go go again. As remarkable as she was I can imagine how she might have been a very bad fit for the wrong family.

This isn't advise on what to do with your intrepid explorer, just an example of how extreme some rats can be.

Best luck.


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## Sabatea (Aug 23, 2014)

I've heard of tall coroplast sheets being used as walls for playpens. You just ziptie them together and you can fold them flat, but they make a slick, decent wall for ratties. 

I have the same sort of problem as you, which is why I now free-range my rats in my entire room. If they see something, they know it's there, and they want to see it closer. That's the way I think they're thinking. So, if they can see something interesting outside of a door, you better bet they're going to slip through it one day. This works the same on your bed. Your escapee rat is seeing the rest of the room, which is so much larger and grander than the small space they've been allowed in. Honestly, I'm not sure if you can stop her. She knows it's there and she has it in her head that it'd be a really fun place.


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## dguizzy (Jun 9, 2014)

My one girl just discovered how to jump off my bed, which is fairly high off of the ground. I'm nervous for her to free range on my floor cause I have a bunch of computer wires and such around, which I don't know how to keep out of reach of the ratties. Any advice for dealing with wires? My rats do chew whatever they can, my new bed set already has holes in it.


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## Jess <3 (Jan 23, 2014)

Just like Fu-Inle, I ended up having to compromise with my rats. I blocked off the space under my desk and on top of my wardrobe but the rats kept pushing, tearing and chewing their way into those spaces so I had to make them rat friendly. They were happy exploring those two places at first but now they try to get under their cage and on top of my desk which are a little harder to rat proof for them! I think i can manage it though. However there is one spot in my room they're definitely not allowed since it's basically a tangled mess of leads and wires and I section that of with really tall cardboard sheets. It was a work in progress for a while but by adding clips and extra support for the sheets i've made it successfully rat proof! 

So basically, what i'm saying is you're probably not going to be able to get your rat to be content just playing on your bed. You may need to get creative to enable them to explore a little more.


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