[alex]

my boys r 11 weeks now, reggie is lovely, comes to me wen i open the cage, lets me pick him up and he has a run around the sofa for an hour and explores me too! ronnie on the other hand is painfully shy, wen i touch him he squeaks, wen i pick him up he poops! alot! its so gross. i put him on the sofa he finds somewhere to hide and stays there. i have to have reggie out too for moral support for the poor lil guy! hes ok for a bit then i have to pick him up to put him away, then he starts pooping again, and seriously its like dihorrea, it grosses me out so badly that it puts me off him a little! hes an absolute darling and i want him to get over this, i thought that perhaps cos he has pink eyes that maybe his sight isnt great and thats why he seems so scared. im no expert tho! could really do with some advice on this, reggie has never pooped out of the cage, i pet them everyday, several times and always get them out, please help!!!!!

 

[cashewsmama]

does reggie have diarrhea as well? how long has ronnie had diarrhea? is it completely runny?

feed ronnie lots of treats first just open the door and hand him treats and gradually make him get them from your palm -->climbing onto your hand to get treats---->climbing out of the cage to get treats

 

[alex]

no there is no diorreah only wen i pick ronnie up, its not runny poop at first but is after a minute or 2. there is no runny poop in cage just wen i hold him. he takes treats from me and will climb on me, just the handling part he seems scared of. but then he sits and bruxes and boggles after a while, he even falls asleep on me, i cant work it out, u dont think it hurts him at all to pick him up?

 

[cashewsmama]

i really dont think you are hurting him when you are picking him up. hm... his weird diarrhea thing is something i do not know about.

some rats don't really enjoy being picked up. i've heard of rats where they squeal and kick everytime they are being picked up but are the biggest people fiends. i have a rat that whirls his tail around like crazy because he's never ever gotten to trust me with picking him up even though hes a sweetie and has been picked up for almost two years. your rat sounds like my rat except for the pooping part.

 

[Forensic]

Fear poops generally stop eventually. You just have to be patient. My boys stopped doing that after I'd had them a while, but still do it when the dog lunges at them. :roll:

 

[DonnaK]

Is it possible to have him come out of the cage on his own, so you don't have to pick him up? If so, I would try that for a while and then try to pick him up periodically and see how he handles it.

 

[mopydream44]

it's a defense mechanism. "Pooping" makes the rats lighter in preparation to flee! My Ostrich did this at first when I brought him away from his cage. The first few "poops" would be soild and they would get softer. He generally only "pooped" three at a time. The first two were always solid, and the third one was soft. A few times he went over three and they continued to get softer.

wow what a gross thing to go into detail about lol i apologize but I think what you are experiencing is fairly normal; however, if he is going too much it may be bad for him.....please don't take my word on that as I am not sure.

What you can try is holding him while standing right next to his cage or possibly set it up, so he can run back to his cage if he needs to. I had a set up where my ratties could run out of their cage and through a tube to my desk. They are so curious that they eventually came out on their own, and once treats became involved they wouldn't leave me be lol!

 

[alex]

thanks for all the replies guys! really helpful, im glad i am not hurting him, unfortunately their cage isnt in a place i can just let them out, im currently thinking of ways to rat proof my room! but i will just be patient with him, i guess the more i play with him the less frightened he will become eventually? ill just have to put up with it for mow, it smells so bad lol

 

[taralyncouture]

well fiona used to do that, she's have these weird green squishy poops. she grew out of it. hopefully yours will too. i made the problem of feeding her to many veggies make sure you only give her a few a day