# Babies getting independent, and a little too adventurous???



## DobiePaws (Aug 25, 2013)

My unexpected litter of babies will be 3 weeks old tomorrow - they have become much more active in the last 2-3 days and have managed to make it to the second floor of my cabinet style cage (Mom has been hiding upstairs to get away from them). They also climb up the hardware cloth front panel, and fall back down. They pile into and on the exercise wheel and spin round and go flying off (which is on the second floor, so they have not had access to it until today) . 

DO I NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THEIR SAFETY??? or are they pretty resilient and ready for all this fun & excitement. They are making me nervous. They can not fall straight down from the second floor to the first (thank goodness). 

New Rat Mom.


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## DobiePaws (Aug 25, 2013)

Here are some pics of the babies.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

I would try to keep the falls under 6in if possible. I achieved this via hammocks/toys to tumble onto, breaking the force of the fall. It is very nerve wrecking and there are stories of them falling to their deaths, so I preferred to make every possible location for a fall have a hammock strung underneath. You really can't predict too much what is or isn't going to happen, but it is best to minimize any risks.
Personally, due to the ridiculous nature of the babies' understanding of how to use the wheel, I took it out of the cage and let them play on it during free range.


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## DobiePaws (Aug 25, 2013)

Thanks - I was thinking I was gonna have to remove the wheel. The one they've been using for supervised play is much smaller than the one that is the cage for the bigger rats. I'll remove it or block off the second story overnight. I still can't believe they got up there........... Thanks for sharing your experience.


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