Litter Training - Leeroy, Latte, Patch, and Bowie

ThreeFor · Feb 10, 2014

I thought I'd use this thread to do my FIRST litter training. I'm a newbie to this, but I want my rat's cage to be clean and wonderful!

I'm assuming from what I read.. that I need to every day or so, pick up all the poops in the cage and place them in the litter pan. and they will know "oh I pooped there."

On a side note, I've also been training the rats with a clicker and treats.

but! On the first day my older rat, Leeroy pooped in the pan! I was so happy! But then it seemed like he happened to be there.. instead of really going there intentionally.

I still gave him a treat and lots of praise and click.

I'll update this with more information in a week or so.. but does anyone have any techniques that I can do?

I'll be on my phone at work. :coffee:

jorats · Feb 10, 2014

Try and pick up the poops twice a day if you can. Get them all in that litter pan and clean out the litter pan every couple of days so it doesn't get too full. And when you clean it out, keep a few to put back in there. A full litter pan might make the rats not want to go in there.
Good idea with treating when pooping in the right place.

ThreeFor · Feb 11, 2014

They are pooping a better in litter pan already! Although the two new rats are okay.. but my rat "leeroy" is like scared of one of the new ones.. and they were fighting.. which is to be expected.. but I hope it's ok

Joanne · Feb 11, 2014

They will usually pick certain places they like to poop. I try and put the boxes in those places so they are more likely to use them.

abby3089 · Mar 2, 2014

I did it the totally non-traditional way.

No matter how hard I tried, and how carefully I picked up all of the poops, my girls just refused to use the litter box (with small animal litter) and went to the bathroom all over their cage which was covered in Yesterday's News. So, one day, I pulled a big switch. I put their beloved Yesterday's News in the litter box, and lined the floor with Zilla liner. The girls seemed to decide that Zilla liner was just no fun, and they started going to the bathroom in the litter box on Yesterday's News as they always have. Basically, I tricked them.

I have no idea if this will work for other rats. But luckily, as a last resort, it worked for me!

Also, I use a ferret-sized litter box which is pretty big. It covers a quarter of the bottom of my Martin's Cabin. I think the large size definitely is more appealing for the ratties.