[codcommando]

Yesterday my girlfriend and I were sleeping, and the girls made an escape through the holes where their food dish is because the bar that secures the dish was loose(crappy cage :x ) I awoke to the feeling of something crawling across my hand at the same time my girlfriend thought she saw a "bat" in the bed. We both literally flew out of bed and almost hit the ceiling lol. I turned on the lights and saw it was Shade. I then couldnt find Sunny and panicked assuming she had propably chewed through a wire somewhere in my room. I then found a half eaten tylenol extra strength under my bed, so then I figured well shes gotta be dead, luckily I found her still alive, I stayed up all night watching them assuming that one of them was going to kick the bucket, but they didnt. Am I the only one who assumes that tylenol should have killed them? O well, thank god it didnt.

 

[Forensic]

Some people give their ratties suspensions of painkillers, however I would have been just as worried.

Sounds like it's time for a new cage. What sort of cage are they in right now?

 

[codcommando]

I have this cage with linolium on the wire floors. I just tied the one tray thing closed with wire. The worst part about this cage is the squeeky wheel, but I wrapped electrical tape on the wheel axel so it doesnt squeek anymore.

http://www.coastcages.com/catalog/images/RC7 PIC.jpg

I think they have discontinued it to make improvements, grrrr..........

 

[Forensic]

Gosh. 8O It looks mostly decent, but it mustn't be... can you maybe ziptie or twisttie it shut? :?

 

[2manyrats]

Rats are pretty robust creatures - one of my friend's rats ate a bunch of rat poision, and she was fine (not that we've x-rayed her liver or anything). Also, a while back I dropped my pillbox on the floor, and apparently a few pills rolled underneath places I couldn't get to... but the rats could. I just found a half-eaten ibuprofen, lorazepam, and an adderall with nibbles when I moved my fridge. No one's been acting strangely, so obviously none of those affected anyone much!

Also, when I returned home 10 minutes ago, I was greeted with a rat sitting on top of my laundry hamper. Lo and behold the little bugger figured out how to open his cage latch. It's totally getting a binder clip from now on.

They're such smart little creatures I often wonder if it's cruel to keep them caged up.

Anyways, good luck with your escapees and cage - you can probably bend the latching part of the dish door with pliers to keep it from happening again. If you actually open the door to pull the food dish out, then it's probably going to be a big pain to untwistie tie it every time.

 

[lilspaz68]

In the wild a rat will nibble on new "food" items and then will wait to see if it makes them sick. If it makes them sick or kills them, their colony members will smell their mouth and remember the smell and avoid it. If it doesn't the same thing applies and all the rats will try it.
I am sure that is what happened.

 

[DonnaK]

Eep! Glad it all turned out ok. I would've freaked out, too!

 

[penelope]

My rats never try to get out. I mean they'll come over and greet me and put on a show when I go by their cage but they get at least 3 hours out of the cage a day and then when I put them back in they just run around the cage. I've never seen them at the doors trying to make a go of it.

 

[Alyssa_Rat]

OMG thats what kind of cage i have for TempleTon only its a 3 level cage.... TempleTons not a big fan of exscaping though, im shure he could if he tried but i think he feels more secure in his cage then outside of it.

Thank god your ratties ok though... i would have been pretty worried too.

 

[ladylady]

I patched up the hole we have like this...

 

[vanesssa19]

You can tighten the food cup latches by further bending them.

If you un latch it and take a look near the "hinges" on the bottom you should be able to see where its bent. If you take a pair of plyers and bend it more, the latch will be more secure and they won't be able to escape.