[pieopah]

well...i have had my two boys nowe for a few months.....things have been going good.........except that my son is now becoming really interested in them.if they are in their cage and the door is closed he'll stand there and whine till i let them out....this is all fine except what he really wants to do is put random toys and sippy cups and other similar things (cell phones) in the cage...mind you the rats dont seem to mind that much...but i dont really like picking it out of the litter then cleaning it.....the real problem is this.....my son is starting to try and hurt the ratties by throwing things at them...pulling their tails and trying to push them places.....and no matter how sever the punishment is he just doesnt seem to get it......every time i hear a little squeak i know that kyles bugging them....up to this point they got along great kyle would just look at them and then he would laugh when they sniffed his toes
anyways its really pissing me off as im sure you can all imagine.....have any of you had a similar problem?...keep in mind my son is still only a year and a half old...so he doesnt know what hes doing...but my rats are so good with people now i am worried it will start to make them nasty ....

 

[hjkaga]

i would put the rats up where he can't reach them. only let him near them when you are right there to watch over what happens.

 

[Vixie]

Get a shock collar.



...Just kidding!!

Haha.

But yeh, my four year old sister enjoys picking up the rats by their hind legs and the dropping them as soon as she feels thier claws on her arm.

I have my rats in my room and I lock it whenever I'm not home(keeping the key on the top of the doorframe).

That's what I suggest, put them up high or put them in their own room and lock the door when he's being bothersome.

 

[pieopah]

haha thanks...i did put them up higher and i think they like it better too!!!
i just had to only let them out of their cage when my son is sleeping at nap time and bed time......the rats dont like that too much but its better then getting your tail pulled!!

 

[rcropper]

Yes - it's best with small children (and big ones) to simply remove the problem. It works with little kids that you can't reason with - "out of sight out of mind". And it similarly works with big kids as a punishment. Great example - many years ago, my sister (who is 11 years my senior) had a problem, as young lady's often do, with slamming her bedroom door after any nasty argument with mom.... which seems, on reflection, to have been mostly a daily occurance. My father, being a soft spoken man (when he raised his voice, the ground split, and **** spewed forth....), and always having the best solutions to problems such as this, easily rectified the offensive, noisom daily occurance...... one day my sister returned from school to find NO door. He knocked the hinge pins out and put it in the garage. Not a hand was lifted in anger, nor a foul word spoken on his part. Simple and elegant solution to the problem. No door = no slamming. As the family is quick to recall to this day, she exclaimed "where's my **** door?!?". To which my father, upon carefully looking over the jam, hinges and other requisite bits that remained indicating there was, at one time, an ingress/egress device at that location replied "huh - it appears to be gone." and promptly went back to his pipe and newspaper. 8)

No small-child access to rats = no angry, bothered rats. Supervised visitation only - just like prison.

Rick

 

[tasha]

That story is hilarious. I'm gonna have to remember it!

 

[DonnaK]

rcropper, you've just reminded me of a similar story! I used to go up to my room and blast my music when I was upset with my parents. One day, my dad shut off the fuse for the upstairs power outlets. I was soooo p'd off when I had to go downstairs (forcing me to face my parents) to flick the fuse switch on again! :lol: