# Lazy male rats?



## Soarel (Jan 1, 2013)

So...All the male rats I've had so far have been kinda lazy8). I'll be getting another pair soon (maybe even 3) but I'm not so sure I want lazy rats again. 

I don't want females because they go nuts when in heat. Is there a way to make my males more active?


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## rattie_lover (Jan 1, 2013)

i love lazy rats! but you could try stimulating them alot. put many thing in their cage and play with them alot


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Stimulation could help. But female rats are also not that crazy; I've never noticed when mine were in heat. I have one female that is active 100% of the time and she is a treat to keep up with, but my other three are active but not crazy so they're always ready to play, they do a lot in their cage, but they're also pretty easy to keep track of when they're in their free roam time. The key is just to train and socialize them well.


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## YellowSpork (Jul 7, 2012)

You could always spay/neuter and do a mixed gender group.  Though I have one girl who is really hyper with the other girls sometimes, and will also come chill and cuddle with me the other half of the time. XD My females aren't super crazy, but they are more hyper than the boys!


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## A.ngelF.eathers (Jul 6, 2011)

Honestly, I wish I had my lazy boys back .-.

I've never been able to notice when my females have been in heat, but they're insane anyway. Lol


and, as a side question >.>
What server do you use on LOTRO? xD


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## HelloClarice (Feb 1, 2012)

I agree with everyone else, I never know when they ladies are in heat they are always crazy! Only once did I realize one girl [Claire] was in heat and it was because when I pet her, her ear's vibrated haha


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## Soarel (Jan 1, 2013)

I can't believe that you didn't notice it on the signature, but I'm on Crickhollow.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

i love active bouncy male rats too, theres quite a lot you can do to get them. The first thing is to look for breeders near you that have boys that tend to be active, the line i work with is well known for active inquisitive rats and i know several more in the uk, in contrast some lines are very placid and cuddly (and not for me lol).

Another thing you can do is scatter feed, this involves hiding there food around the cage in the substrate and so on, it works best if you feed a dry mix and have a decent 'diggable' substrate. Its one of the resons i have a really deep layer in my cage, its great watching them properly dig for there dinner. Scatter feeding encourages them to forage and it can spread the eating time out longer.

An active cage layout with lots of space, climbing opertunities and no nice easy ramps etc works well. To encourage them make sure there food, water and fave sleeping area is as far apart as you can get it, so they have to move around. Add in a nice big tall cage and they have a ready made gym. I use i high level or ropes and branches in my cage for this purpose, and the lads fly around the cage, its brilliant to watch. The best cage set ups focus on providing for all a rats natural behaviours such as ; digging, balancing, climbing, foraging, gnawing, running, jumping and so on, if you click on my website link theres a habitat section that goes into a lot of that.

Variety is also a brilliant way of keeping them interested and investigating, try to change the toys in the cage, its layout and the textures and smells in it. I occasionally stick some dried herbs in with the substrate, its great to smell and the rats like to eat it, but it also completely changes the smell of the substrate. Trying to use different substrates, sticking in old boxes, toilet roll tubes and such also gives variety and choosing odd shaped toys, such as charity shop finds, go down a real treat. It neednt be expensive, most of my rat toys aren't sold for rats, or any pets actually lol, and a good portion are free or very little money. Variety helps promote neuphilia, which is love of new things, its good for health as well as making them more active as it lowers stress levels.

Active free ranging is important too, and linked with the idea above, trying to keep ftheir free range area interesting and a littler different regularly helps. One thing ive found is a real hit with my boys is doing free range in 3d. They've got a cat activity center in there now and they adore racing up and down it chasing each other. You can help this too by being there to play with them, mine love to chase a feather wand, or string, or even me, if i run up the stairs they will chase me, and get a scritch at the top.

Actually one of the best things you can do is have a mixed age group. This provides younger rats to keep the oldies from getting too slow and rusty. I aim for a group size of 6, which means 3 lots of 2 most of the time. I aim to get new rats every 9-12 months, which means i have babies, adults and olides at any one time. Currently my old man Astreaus is still perfectly able to keep up with my 10 week old babies, and he's getting on for 20 months, he has taken to following the babies to all the hard to reach places of the room lol.

I love my active bucks, i sometimes call the d-ucks, as they are far more like what people imagine does to be like, pinging around like nutters


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