free ranging for babies??

[Petunia]

this is my first time with really little girls and no playpen, now my rats have an entire room to play in for free range time

but I am wondering, is it safe to let the little ones out in such a huge space? I'm afraid since they are so small, I'll lose them :giggle:

what do you normally do for free range for little ones? they are about 12 weeks old or so (the previous owner wasn't sure?? :wallbang: they were born in her home, you'd think she'd remember what day that happened :roll: )

I think they were born in late Feb or early March so they'd be, um, 14 weeks now

I'm gonna give them a March 1st estimated birthday just so I can have some frame of reference

so, where do the little ones usually free range?

I am using my bed as neutral territory for intros, so would a table top be big enough?

 

[MissGuardian]

My balder is almost 7 weeks, and he free roams in my room.. But there isn't many small places he can hide.. Mostly behind the trash can and under the bed and such..

ETA: he is also tame tho.. My room is about 24m2.
It would depend on the rat, but I haven't had any problems when they are fairly tame.

 

[MumsyRat]

I'd say at 12 weeks you're pretty safe to let them run around. Just keep a close eye.

I'd give different advice if they were teeny tiny babies. I learned my lesson once when I lost a wee baby. He was gone for almost 24 hours before we found him inside the couch. I had to rip the underneath lining off to get him out! :giggle:

 

[purinpurin]

I let my Soda and Dally free range with Indy and Loki (my older rats) since day 1; they were a little over 4 weeks then. My room is small, but for extra precautions, I cleared away all important belongings that the rats could "steal" XD, blocked off the bottom of my apartment heater, closed my closet and such. I got rid of my bed frame when I got Indy and Loki, because they kept hiding under the bed! Hahaha. Having just the mattress and box spring makes it easier to find them if they do hide (they can only hide behind their cage now).

So to sum it up, just close off a certain section of space for free range, and make sure there are zero places you can't easily reach in and grab them in the case they do run and hide.

 

[jorats]

Wow... lucky ratties!

 

[Petunia]

Wow... lucky ratties!

yeh it's one of the reasons I haven't moved (yet) I've got an extra bedroom that I can devote entirely to the rats.
it's very hard to keep it cool though, we're on the 3rd floor on top of a hill and we lost almost all of the nearby trees that used to shade the place.
there's no insulation over the living room and very little every where else, so it gets unbearably hot

when I first moved in(15 yrs ago) fans were enough to keep it cool, because we had lots of trees surrounding the building. Now that they are gone, I had to get a small A/c that goes in the rat's room, but there isn't enough electricity coming into the building, so it keeps blowing the circuit breakers. :roll: :gaah:
sigh
I know I will have to move eventually, but for now, we are enjoying having that extra room!

anyway, now that things are going well on neutral territory, is it ok to move to free ranging together?

 

[jorats]

Give it a try.. You'll know soon enough if you need to go back a step.

 

[Petunia]

Give it a try.. You'll know soon enough if you need to go back a step.

you're not kidding :lol:

Hope was rather disturbed to see Smidgen running around the room like she owned the place, Brenna was smart enough to follow Hope around and check in with her frequently to be sure what she was doing and where she was going was ok,
but poor Smidge, she ticked off Hope almost immediately and the fur flew!

So I put them all back in the cage and will do a few more on the bed sessions, adding more toys to see how Hope reacts when the littlest girl wants to play

Boy, is that girl BOSSY! everything has to be her way!!

when Smidge does what she wants, she is quick to lick her on her head and reassure her, so that's good at least.

I took Hope out later and spent some quality time one on one with her, which I realized I don't do that much- I am more likely to pull Cookie out and hang out with her (the two PEWs girls are so much like my last two PEWs, they really don't care for being handled all that much- they'll tolerate it, but you can tell that's all they are doing, putting up with it)

I had the two babies out as well, and gave them a good hour or so in the bonding scarf thingie around my neck (my version of the RaToob, which is pretty much exactly like the RaToob, only made by me and not WrapCity :giggle: )

I am not at all discouraged by this minor set back, I think because the babies have so much energy and will go off in all directions as soon as they are out of the cage, I will block off a much smaller corner of the room at first, so that Hope feels like she is more in control.

she looked absolutely frazzled to have two little girls running all over the place!!

wow, rats are really interesting socially!

the really cool thing is the way that Evie, my younger PEW girl, comes over to comfort Smidge anytime there's any fuss with Hope.
Paige and Cookie will too, if they are nearby but they won't go out of their way to do so like Evie does

interesting connections and bonds that they form, eh?

 

[jorats]

That's when you really see their interactions and their social standing during intros. It's really quite fascinating.