Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / March 2004

Was all set up to get some little playmates for my lonesome rat, but then it
works out how to abseil down the wardrobe (well, fall anyway).  At first I
thought it was an accident but it very quickly proved that it was intentional.
I'd already had to plug the gap at the back (she'd climb down with paws on
wardrobe and wall to stop her falling) but I suppose that once the route between
floor and wardrobe had been found and remembered she just needed to work out
another route.

Unfortuately for rat the rat-proofing in the room is not good enough for
unsupervised scamperings so she's been spending lots of time locked up in her
cage.  For a year and a half she's been unable to work the doors on the cage but
now, given the motivation of The Floor, she's worked them out - I came home this
morning to find the room slightly less tidy than I'd remembered it.  Found Rat
inside the bed guarding a stash of:

She found the chocolate drops again, three receipts, a bus ticket, 1/3 of a
cheque, a disposable razor, pieces of cake (?!?), three wheetos, assorted bits
of wallpaper, three cadbury's creme egg wrappers, a small piece of sellotape, an
unidentified piece of clear plastic and assorted rat food.  Unfortunately she
seems to have stopped stashing stuff under my pillows, which means no unexpected
evening snacks when I go to bed :-(

Looking at what's been knocked over/disturbed in my room I think she's been
absolutely EVERYWHERE!

Everything electrical works, tho I suppose it doesn't mean she hasn't been
nibbling wires!  Whilst ferreting behind my bed looking for a remote control the
other month I came across an extension lead that had the LIVE wire nibbled
through in several places - the copper wires had been half bitten though.  Quite
how the rat survived 230 Volts I'm not quite sure.  It was this find that made
me do the rat-proofing.  I guess she did it when that time when I fell asleep
and she nicked half a pizza - I had vague recollections of waking up with
something furry cuddled up by my leg, then waking again an hour later with
nothing furry anywhere and no bl**dy pizza!

It's not too bad - it's no worse than student mess I suppose and at least she
didn't find the toothpaste this time but it does mean I'm going to have to work
out a way of stopping her from leaving the wardrobe before I get any more rats.
The problem is it can't be to obvious (like making the top of th wardrobe into
one big cage) 'cos the landlord might realise the mouse isn't really a mouse and
is now plural too!
Anyone got any ideas?