# Slow learner (Rat ball)



## Winifred (Dec 4, 2006)

I live with a mean Dog so letting my rat run around freely is out of the question. So I bought a clear rat ball for her to run around in so I didn't have to worry about the dog pouncing on her. (I usually keep the dog locked up anyway.) But when I put her in the ball she just sits there and tries to bite the sides. I have tried slowly rolling her to encourage her to run but she just doesn't get it. She will walk enough to keep from flipping but when I stop moving the ball she will just sit there and chew on the ball.

What advice do you have for training my rat to play in the ball and not just feel trapped by it?

Thanks.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

No training. Your rat is telling you that she hates it in there.  Most rats do not like run-about balls. Its not made for them at all since their spine arches up they have to reach up with their paws to move...unlike a hamster who is much more conformed to the ball. A running wheel does the same thing but the rat can get off anytime it wants.

Is there not a bathroom you can rat-proof for your rat to play in? Put the dog somewhere else while your rat is out?

Oh and you said rat? She doesn't have a cagemate? Rats are incredibly social animals and require a friend.


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Our eldest rat loves her ball and will bound around in it for as long as she can until she needs to relieve herself. We first put her in a ball when she was about 8 months old, and she just took to it straight away.

Our youngest, who is now 4 months, doesn't seem to care for the ball we bought her. She does pretty much what you describe your rat as doing. Occasionally, we try her again, but we're being careful not to push it on her too much as we don't want her to think of it as a bad thing. She uses the wheel in their cage a lot, though.

I think it's just a matter of preference, really. Perhaps give your rattie a couple of weeks and then try again, but be prepared to accept that she may never take to it.

Just one question - are you sure the wheel plenty big enough for her? Can she stand up fully and still have room to jump in it?


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

My girl Takota LOVES her ball lol, while my boy Naz hates it. I believe it depends on the rat. Sometimes it takes a day or two and maybe she's just picky. My bf's rat wont run in her ball unless she's in his room lol. I would say if after two or 3 days she might not like it.


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

My girl Takota LOVES her ball lol, while my boy Naz hates it. I believe it depends on the rat. Sometimes it takes a day or two and maybe she's just picky. My bf's rat wont run in her ball unless she's in his room lol. I would say if after two or 3 days she might not like it.


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## Sara_C (Mar 10, 2007)

I don't really like the balls, i think they're cruel for animals as intelligent as rats who need more stimulation than to simply sit inside a ball. They'll probably just get frustrated trying to get out. Is there no way you can rat proof your room, or keep your dog out?


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

Yeah my boys dont like that ball at all, so right now its being used to hold there toys and things, haha.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

JennieLove said:


> Yeah my boys dont like that ball at all, so right now its being used to hold there toys and things, haha.


Jennielove, you can take it apart and use the halves as rat nests...most rats love that.  Or I might have seen a whole one fastened to the side of the cage with fabric scraps in it.


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Sara_C said:


> rats who need more stimulation than to simply sit inside a ball.


Our eldest doesn't sit still for a minute, inside her ball :lol:


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## dreadhead (Mar 1, 2007)

Our rat Mindy is content with the ball, but if something scares her she freaks out... I think it has something to do with not being able to hide fast. Lucy absolutely hates the ball... she will do everything in her power to stay out of that ball lol. The one time I did get her in there she'd get going and couldn't stop... so it ended up wobbling or spinning and her pooping all over the place because she was terrified. They absolutey LOVE there wheels though,we ended up getting two for there cage because they have sharing issues... and when they do share in the wire wheel it usually ends up with Lucy not keeping up and doing flips in the wheel :lol:


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

Wow! Thats a great idea! We have two balls so I
ll have to play around with them. THANK YOU!


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## Alyssa_Rat (Mar 19, 2007)

Well Alyssa is weird about it... 1. she poops and doenst stop when shes in her ball 2. she will sit there and groom herself amongst the piles of poo ((scary)) 3. shes run till she hits a wall then stop and like not run. So idk if she likes it or not.... accationaly ill let her run around the house but i cant do it unless im there watching her because we are fostering 3 cats that seem very interested in her ((king tut our cat could care less about alyssa)) so I also got her a prop sorta thing for the ball... its so she can run around without moving. She doesnt run on her wheel though.. its like it doesnt exist to her, im about ready to take it out of her cage.... I usually just let Alyssa climb around my lab while im on the computer or watching tv.


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

Jay and Bob used to poo in their ball and would never run in it at all; So I dont put them in there anymore, I dont want to stress them out or anything.


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## Sara_C (Mar 10, 2007)

I dunno...there's just something about the idea of trapping your rat in a ball that doesn't sit well with me. They might be running out of frustration, trying to find a way out or simply just to try and escape. 

And don't forget that rats have _very_ poor eyesight. They rely on their smell, hearing and sense of touch through their whiskers to understand their world, and in a ball much of this is taken away from them. They can't see well to start with, and they'll find it even harder to see through a plastic ball. That, and as lilspaz says, it doesn't to their backs any favours. Animals like rats and guinea pigs, with larger, less flexible spines are not suited to balls at all.


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

I agree with ya on that one Sara_C. My first two boys where free to roam; my room was theres. I live with my BF now so my new boys dont have that option (since there are so many tempting things for them to chew on) lol. After I tried the ball once or twice, they didnt like it and I didnt either! So I just let them have there normal play time outa the cage, I just have to keep an eye out.


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Alyssa_Rat said:


> She doesnt run on her wheel though.. its like it doesnt exist to her, im about ready to take it out of her cage....


How big is the wheel?


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## Sara_C (Mar 10, 2007)

I have that exact same problem Jennielove lol. I've had to resort to tying all my cables up and out of the way - Oscar has never, ever chewed a wire in his life but Moss seems obsessed with chewing them!


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

dreadhead said:


> They absolutey LOVE there wheels though,we ended up getting two for there cage because they have sharing issues... and when they do share in the wire wheel it usually ends up with Lucy not keeping up and doing flips in the wheel :lol:


Hehehehe, that is totally deliberate!! I call that loop de loop. My 7 month old sisters still play it every night...they both run then one hangs on and gets spun around...they absolutely love it. :lol: 

For the fun of it check out the boys of my ooops litter playing this game...
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h... and Rennie/?action=view&current=DSCF8179.flv


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

OMG My old rat Beavis ~RIP~ chewed 3-4 computer cables (dont worry, wasnt on lol) This computer was Prehistoric! AND IT STILL WORKED EVEN AFTER THE CABLE WERE GONE so I have no idea of the purpose of any of them were LMAO! Beavis had his own special spot conveniently behind a big dresser that I couldnt move for the life of me; he used to take things from anywhere and everwhere and stick them there and he KNEW that I couldnt get to them. When I finally got someone to help me move the dresser we found the cables...along with paper, pencils, sharpies (>.< Not eaten THANK GOD) fabrics, treats....HAHA everything. I wish I could have gotten a video of him taking stuff, he would hop like a bunny! One time he found a stick and he couldnt figure out how to get it through between the wll and the dresser and he kept running at it like it would fit...He finally realized that he had to turn it vertically to get it to fit! lol I miss him :'(


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

Sara_C said:


> I dunno...there's just something about the idea of trapping your rat in a ball that doesn't sit well with me. They might be running out of frustration, trying to find a way out or simply just to try and escape.
> 
> And don't forget that rats have _very_ poor eyesight. They rely on their smell, hearing and sense of touch through their whiskers to understand their world, and in a ball much of this is taken away from them. They can't see well to start with, and they'll find it even harder to see through a plastic ball. That, and as lilspaz says, it doesn't to their backs any favours. Animals like rats and guinea pigs, with larger, less flexible spines are not suited to balls at all.


I have a HUGE custom made ball which prevents the back problems, also the ball isn't the ONLY outside time my hunnies get. Mostly i'll use the ball if i'm cleaning her cage and she wont sit till. My room is currently rat proofed but she doesn't come to her name (yet). When i'm not cleaning her cage we work on her name and just having fun and being held . 
I'm not trying to make you go out and buy a rat ball or anything i'm jsut saying what i do and how i find them affective. I understand the poor eyesight but if you have a clear plastic ball and not one of those foggy or mulit-colored ones it doesn't seem too bad. OH! another perk to having a custom mad ball, i had special ventalation "holes" it's hard to describ i'll see if i can post a pic.


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## Alyssa_Rat (Mar 19, 2007)

Ok so I know how mean this is ganna sound but lilspaz68 I couldnt stop laughing when I watched the video of your rats and what made it really funny was every time one of your rats did a "loop de loop" you were like "weee" (sorry i couldnt get over how funny it was)... It was just to funny... when I had mice they used to do that, also so did my baby hamsters.. lol.

Now with the wheel, Its just Alyssa's size.. Ive gatta buy her a bigger one, its just the only one I have right now because it came with the cage. But even from the begining she had no interest in it.. she didnt explore it to se what it is/did or anything.

Ive got a question.. now I know with wheel there not moving but I would figure with the wheel and the ball it would have the same affect on the rats backs/spines... like even with the wheel our rats backs are arched as with the ball... I dont get the difference between them??


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

lilspaz68 thats such a cute video! Me and my BF just watched it and we were also cracking up laughing.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Alyssa_Rat said:


> Ok so I know how mean this is ganna sound but lilspaz68 I couldnt stop laughing when I watched the video of your rats and what made it really funny was every time one of your rats did a "loop de loop" you were like "weee" (sorry i couldnt get over how funny it was)... It was just to funny... when I had mice they used to do that, also so did my baby hamsters.. lol.
> 
> Now with the wheel, Its just Alyssa's size.. Ive gatta buy her a bigger one, its just the only one I have right now because it came with the cage. But even from the begining she had no interest in it.. she didnt explore it to se what it is/did or anything.
> 
> Ive got a question.. now I know with wheel there not moving but I would figure with the wheel and the ball it would have the same affect on the rats backs/spines... like even with the wheel our rats backs are arched as with the ball... I dont get the difference between them??


Doesn't sound mean at all, the rats would get more excited and happy when I made the "whee" sound  . I have many videos of my kids that I have posted on other forums and everyone love and laugh at my narrations. :lol: 

The difference is that a rat will get off the wheel when it wants to, in a ball it is forced into this motion and cannot get away. I had tried the roll-about ball for one of my rats a long time ago and she would move around in it and if I didn't know her better she seemed okay, but really it was more frantic, and she was trying to get away. She would spend a lot of time at the air holes sniffing deeply, and as it was previously mentioned they depend on their senses of smell and hearing (which the plastic ball limits heavily) and as a prey animal this made them even more scared. She never liked going in there, and her sister would just sit there unhappily, so I gave up. Then I researched it online with other owners...ooops.


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## radical (Jan 15, 2007)

My rats aren't fans of the ball either. Franz and Zeekie go in them, but don't do anything, and Buzz is absolutely terrified to be even near one.. So I don't bother with the ball anymore haha.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

I never brought a ball because I was afraid it would be a waste of money. I need something to keep Bastian in place when he's out, he goes EVERYWHERE but he's not a chewer when he is out, so maybe i shouldn't worry too much.


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## Alyssa_Rat (Mar 19, 2007)

Well I dont use the ball that aften you know... umm instead most the time ill just stick Alyssa in my pocket or on my shoulder, Or if the cats arnt around ill stick her on my bed and she'll play peek-a-boo under the covers and pillows.
I also sometimes have my dog watch her... there so cute with eachocher cause Alyssa will go sit under my dogs stomace and Bonnie, my dog, will just sit there all excited. Even though Bonnies a Pitt I know I can trust her with my rats because at one point when I had a Guinea Pig she started Lactading for it.. it was so funny. She wont take her eyes off Alyssa for a split second.. and she'll just follow her around.
Ok so at this point ive taken the wheel out of Alyssa's cage.... I would like to buy her one that bigger... but how do I know she'll run on it?? I dont wanna waste my money if shes just ganna sit there and ignore it.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

all my rats love the ball. they fight each other for it and cram themselves in there even though there's really not the space, but no one gets out either.... mind you my ball is stationary and tied up in the cage too... i did try having rats run in it once but all they do is look pathetic. so they're used as favored hidy holes in the cage now. 

with the wheel, some rats LOVE it others ignore it. it all depends on the rat. but make sure its the proper size otherwise even those that would love it won;t use cause its too small and uncomfortable. at the worst though they'll use it as a place to sleep so they'll still use it. and later down the road you may come across like my Kakushi and Spider wh between the two of them the wheel never stops.


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Alyssa_Rat said:


> Now with the wheel, Its just Alyssa's size.. Ive gatta buy her a bigger one, its just the only one I have right now because it came with the cage. But even from the begining she had no interest in it.. she didnt explore it to se what it is/did or anything.


Neither did either of our rats, until they had the bigger wheel. They used to use the little wheel as a seat to sit and watch the world go by :lol:


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## Stephanie (Mar 25, 2007)

My boys HATE the ball my third rat Mister Sniffles loved his wheel untill he outgrew it now it is his bed I didn't have the heart to take it out of the cage he seems so attached to it and since he gets along with NO other rats it seemed only fair yeah i know i have six rats and four cages three of my boys don't like living in a family I feel bad but it is the way that they are happiest


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