# my rat poops anytime you pick her up



## peggel

I have three rats, one boy and two girls. One of the females always poops prolifically when you pick her up to hold her. Is there any way to change this behavior. The only thing I have tried is letting her run around a bit (picking up after her) and then hold her when she's done all the business I think she can do. So its in general, when taking her out of her habitat that she poops, but it comes out very fast when you hold her. Its gross but we still love her!


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## norbnoobley

Hi Peggle; does the rat seem to be nervous or is she mellow?


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## Zeby

My male rat poos a lot when he comes out aswell. Not nice! Dougal has always been quite a nervous rat so I guess that could well be the reason for this problem. He is doing it even more now that he is alone.


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## peggel

norbnoobley said:


> Hi Peggle; does the rat seem to be nervous or is she mellow?


The rat seems to be pretty mellow. Is not hunched up or anything. Allows you to pet her.


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## Missnaz

Despite having rats for years, I am still learning.  All of my younger rats have done this, but every last one of them outgrew it with time, and lotsa loving. Maybe someone knows how to expedite this process?


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## Ettylou

Funny i was just talking about poop too! My new baby does the same poo,poo,poo!! Lovely 
But my 8 month old super shy boy who i've had out today for about 1/2 an hour trying to get his trust didnt poop once... so i agree i think its something they grow out of


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## Kiko

Rats poop out of fear often, handle them a lot and they will stop being afraid after a while.

Also, you have 2 males and 1 female, are they spayed or neutered? If not you are looking at a lot more rats.


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## peggel

they are not housed together, the females are housed separate from the males, so hopefully we don't have any babies because none of them are spayed or neutered

thanks everyone for advice on the rat problem, i noticed she pooped less the other day when i had her out, after being out for a couple of days, then i didn't take her out for a couple of days, took her out today and she pooped prolifically, so it might be a long process of growing out of the habit. none of my other rats have this problem, just her.


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## Critter Aficionado

While it's not the same thing, my young male rat Bo still pees on people (full on urination, not just marking) but doesn't have any medical reason for it, but we got him as a nervous rat and he's still somewhat nervous. My fiance's girls almost never urinate or defecate on us when out, but Bo almost always does if he's out for more than twenty minutes at a time.


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## peggel

reporting in: she's gotten a little better. she still poops a lot but doesn't do it right off like she did at the beginning, i can actually hold her for a while before it happens, which is nice, i think if things continue this way, she might be able to go 20 minutes without pooping. thanks for everyone's feedback.


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## Scuff

My male did that for the longest time, but eventually grew out of it. I never knew such a large amount of turds could come out of a small rat, but there wasn't any end to it!


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