BEHAVIORAL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT

BEHAVIORAL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT

Rats are intelligent and will soon get bored with the same food, toys and routine. When planning to enrich their environment, one needs to take into account that they are curious, social and intelligent rodents famous for gnawing and besides sleeping a great deal during the day, does play and forage for food. The cage environment will never be like the wild environment, but neither are our rats. They have adapted a great deal since living with humans, but they have not adapted to boredom.

Ways to enrich their environment includes:

1) SOCIAL – Rats need interaction with humans as well as other rats. They feel safe among other rats, often play and wrestle, snuggle up and groom each other. Some even has a favourite friend when kept in a group. Keep them in a same gender group or a mixed colony with neutered males. Keeping males and females together to continuously breed is not an option. Neither is keeping one of each, housed next to each other.

2) ENVIRONMENTAL – The Cage should be big enough to allow adequate movement. It should have a sleeping area, feeding area and larger area for playing that allows for running and climbing between levels.

Time outside the cage is necessary for exercise as well as mental stimulation. The smaller your cage, the more time needed outside. The area where you free roam may either be a large table they can play on or a safe space like the bathroom floor. Add toys and obstacles where they can play.

3) FEEDING – Feed both a variety of food and offer it in different ways. Always eating at the bowl isn’t only boring, it also allows for the fattie to hog the bowl and other rats to never get the yummy treats. Scavenging behaviour can be encouraged by scattering dry food at the bottom of the cage among litter or in a large flat tray and covering it with shredded newspaper or other litter. Hide treats in the cage or the play area while free ranging so they can look for it. You can also use metal fruit sticks or a rope with washing pegs and hang treats like fruit, veggies and popcorn just outside reach so they need to stretch or make a plan to get to it. You can also freeze vegetables in ice cubes and offer it on a hot day. As the ice melts they will get to the treats inside and at the same time cool down.

4) MANIPULATION – Give them a challenge like placing treats in a plastic bottle with a few holes cut in the sides. They need to either roll the bottle for the treats to fall out or chew the openings larger in order to get to it. Similar toys may include toilet rolls with paper or hay along with the treat stuffed inside or a paper ball with small treat inside. So basically anything they need to chew, open or break apart to get to the treat.

5) PUZZLES / PROBLEM SOLVING – This is very similar to examples mentioned in no. 4 but may include obstacle courses of tunnels and boxes you paste together with openings connecting different levels. This is ideal for free range time. Commercial puzzle toys are also available in the parrot, dog and cat sections in pet stores.

6) SENSORY – Expose rats to sounds by playing music, different smells on toys (avoid perfumes or scented objects that may irritate the respiratory tract) or different textures like for instance adding ropes to climb on, play sand in a bowl to dig in or a splash pool with glass pebbles at the bottom. Frozen peas could be added to this as a way to feed treats in summer.

7) TRAINING – If you have the patience and time you can even teach your rat commands and tricks. This could be something as basic as teaching the rat his or her name and receiving a treat when it comes to you when called. Use positive reinforcement and treats. This will not only provide mental stimulation, but also build a bond between you and your pet.

#environmentalstimulation #social #cage #feeding