# Ohhhhhh the poop



## RSTweed (Mar 4, 2015)

My two 10-week-old rats poop soooo much - they're our first rats; is this just how it is? When I take them out to handle them, if I sit down on the couch there are literally 6 or 7 poops on me within minutes. They poop piles in their hammock and then sleep on it....is this something they will grow out of or is this how rats are? Do they just poop all over you every time you hold them? Just curious. I thought they would naturally try to poop away from their sleeping area. These two have a pretty constant flow of poop and they sleep in it, do it in my hands, on my lap and all over their cage.


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## Rattienewby (Aug 31, 2014)

Mine never really pooped often out of the cage when they were babies, but definitely did in their hammocks. 

Are you planning on litter training them? That helped us tons!! Now they only poop in their boxes or just behind them.


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

Usually rats will poop on you when they are unsure and frightened. After they get to know you, the pooping should stop. Give it a couple weeks or so


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## RSTweed (Mar 4, 2015)

I would love to litter box train them! They do have a litterbox in their cage and I've places their poop in it but they don't use it :/


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## RSTweed (Mar 4, 2015)

*placed


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## Rattienewby (Aug 31, 2014)

Just keep moving all the poop out of hammocks and other areas, and if they're awake place them in the litter box while you do this. It took us 4-6 weeks to get ours going there pretty consistently.


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## templet0n (Nov 18, 2013)

Litter box training can be a hassle but it's well worth it in the end. However, some rats just won't take to using a litter box and you have to just deal with the poops.


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## RSTweed (Mar 4, 2015)

I could honestly deal with the poops in the cage if they would just stop pooping all over me eventually.


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## RSTweed (Mar 4, 2015)

Can anyone post links to threads about litterbox training?


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## Tedology (Mar 3, 2015)

Hi RST, I'm also a new rat owner.

My boys poop quite a bit when they're out with me...but not 10 or 15 poops (thank goodness!).

What I do is just collect them (thankfully they are firm enough) and put them in their litter box. I also do this if I see any in their cage. I've yet to check their hammock, but I probably should check there. Fearful of what I might find!

Regarding your request for links...if you do a "search" for "litterbox training" on the forums here, it's pretty good about having related topics pop up. Also, try searching Google or YouTube for "rat litterbox training".

Good luck.


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## erikablanchettexo (Nov 25, 2014)

Try buying a litterbox with a grate on it if you don't already have one. I find they work really well. 

I use yesterday's news unscented as the litter and the grate doesn't allow them to kick the poops out or eat the litter pellets. 

Just pick up the poops that you see every day and put them in the litterbox. If you happen to see them pooping outside of the litterbox say "no!" And pick them up and put them on their litterbox and say "yes". If you see them using their litterbox, say "yes" and give a treat. That's what I find worked the best for me. 

If you want to take it a step further, if you see them peeing outside of the litterbox, take a piece of paper towel and soak it up and put it in the litterbox underneath the grate. That way they will smell the pee and hopefully start peeing in the litterbox too.


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## Mball77 (Jul 3, 2013)

Ok, do babies just poop all over the place a lot? The boys I got as adults never pooped the bed. My babies really like pooping and peeing in bed, and everywhere else too. I've been lining their beds with paper towels and they are soaked. I've had to spot clean twice a day. They like to climb the bars and poop, and it gets outside the cage. The pee on the side of the bottom tray which...do they rear up and pee on it? How do they do that? Where they pee is higher then their waist when standing up....I don't get it. They pee and poop in their food dish. They haven't on me after the first week of taking them home.

Are babies just messy at first. I've been trying to litter train them but maybe it just takes longer when they are young?


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## erikablanchettexo (Nov 25, 2014)

Babies are popping and peeing machines for a month roughly. Mine were anyway. I honestly didn't bother with litter training until they calmed down with pooping everywhere because it's nearly impossible but if you have the patience to do it then by all means, do it haha. 

Place those soiled paper towels in the litter box as well as their poop and hopefully they will eventually catch on.


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## erikablanchettexo (Nov 25, 2014)

For them pooping in their food dish, I don't know what kind of dish you have, but try bird feeder dishes. My girls pooped in their dish too and that's what I used and they've stopped. Little buggers haha


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## Kuildeous (Dec 26, 2014)

Mball77 said:


> Ok, do babies just poop all over the place a lot? The boys I got as adults never pooped the bed. My babies really like pooping and peeing in bed, and everywhere else too. I've been lining their beds with paper towels and they are soaked. I've had to spot clean twice a day. They like to climb the bars and poop, and it gets outside the cage. The pee on the side of the bottom tray which...do they rear up and pee on it? How do they do that? Where they pee is higher then their waist when standing up....I don't get it. They pee and poop in their food dish. They haven't on me after the first week of taking them home.
> 
> Are babies just messy at first. I've been trying to litter train them but maybe it just takes longer when they are young?


My girls all pretty much pooped and peed all the time. With the exception of the oldest (who is the smartest), they pooped on people when picked up. They didn't poop so much when they crawled up on my arm of their own will, but when I would take them out of their cage, they weren't able to hold it as well.

Now they're between 3 and 4 months old, and they don't poop on me anymore. Even the shyest rat, who whimpers and looks longingly at her cage every time I bring her out, doesn't poop when she's feeling nervous. ****, I took my oldest in for a checkup and was out for nearly 2 hours. Despite the stressful car rides and new environment, she didn't poop once during her outing. 

So yeah, they can be remarkably clean when it comes to pooping (though they still tend to mark areas with pee, lil buggers), but it's been an ordeal. It got to the point where we'd pick up the rats, play with them a bit, and put them back in the cage to poop. That didn't work as well as I'd hoped because they were able to hold it once they were safely in their cage, so it lulled us into a false sense of security. 

Just keep towels handy. For a while, we'd place a towel on us and the rat on the towel. If we were lucky, she happened to be on the towel when she pooped.


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## Shine (Feb 20, 2015)

When I first got my rats they pooped allll the time, all over me and my bed and everything, but now they hardly ever poop outside of their cage anymore, and they pretty much just poop on the cage floor, not on the shelves where they sleep and eat.


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