# i'm sure this is nothing new but...



## OnlyOno (Apr 4, 2007)

the moment i take picasso out of her cage and set her on my desk, she'll drop 7 or 8 little treats for me out her back end. it's like she's saving them for me until she gets on my desk.

she will sometimes pee outside of her cage, but when she's in there she's pretty good about peeing in her litter pan. she seems to like to do her no.2 when she's sitting in her wheel, so she has a nice place set aside for that too, it's just not the place i wanted her to use. either way, what do you guys think i could do to get her to stop pooping on my desk?

i recently wiped it down with bleach because, as much as i love her, too many people contract salmonella from their iguanas and rodents every year (i'm a microbiology minor, i can't help but be a little paranoid). i thought about it and i'm sure that's only making it worse, but what else could i use?


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## Stephanie (Mar 25, 2007)

litter train her *nods there are a bunch of litter training threads here though i don't have any handy right now LoL just search litter training i think that is your best bet


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## ladylady (Apr 5, 2007)

i was wondering what humans could pick up from rats-anything else to look out for onlyono?


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

what do you mean buy pick up? like can they make you sick?


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## ladylady (Apr 5, 2007)

yeah


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## Stephanie (Mar 25, 2007)

i have never gotten sick from any of my rats LoL and my boys are no where near litter trained LoL they go when the need strikes them


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

well its their poop. its filled with bacteria. if we pooped on desks and then picked it up we could get sick too. there's just more chance of a pet rat doing that then there is of a fellow human roomate. but i'm sure there's a ton of things you can get from them. mind you there's plenty of illness you can get from playing the dirt or shaking hands or kissing or using a doorknob. the key is not too think too much about it and good personal hygine.


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

Twich's right, also if you have some type of sicknesslike strep. That can make your rats sick.


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## OnlyOno (Apr 4, 2007)

yeah i'm trying to litter train her. i clean the half of the cage she poops in every other day or so and i pick up fresh poopies and put them in her litter box, but it doesn't seem to work well.

you usually get sick from your rats if they are themselves sick, but salmonella is the big one you can get from kissing your rats (it's transmitted orally-fecally; you eat their poop, basically). it's a little more common in mice than rats. mice also carry hantavirus (totally deadly) but usually only in africa and the southern portion of north america. rat fleas can cause a type of typhus, and a rat sick with lung worm can potentially transmit meningitis. leptospirosis can be caused by inhaling particles of rat or cat feces, and a type of septicemia (infection of the blood) can be caused by a rat bite.

these are generally very rare, especially in the better developed parts of the world, but yes, they do occur, and more often in pet store animals than well-bred and maintained ones.  don't get paranoid! love your babies! and wash your hands after you play with them and before you eat, just in case.

and yes, YOU can get your RATS sick, if you sneeze on them or cough in their general direction, but they're not as susceptible as say, hamsters.


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Nazarath said:


> Twich's right, also if you have some type of sicknesslike strep. That can make your rats sick.


I recently read up on strep and apparently it can kill a rat in 3 days if not treated! I knew they could catch it from humans but I didn't know how fatal it could be


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