The document provides care instructions for three rats named Griffin, Ajax and Echo. It details how to change their water, load puzzle games, provide free roam time, wet their cage soil, return them to their cage, and feed them including treats, dry food, protein, vegetables and supplements. It also mentions keeping an eye on the rats' health, caring for plants in another room, and maintaining the secrecy of the rats from neighbors.
The document provides care instructions for three rats named Griffin, Ajax and Echo. It details how to change their water, load puzzle games, provide free roam time, wet their cage soil, return them to their cage, and feed them including treats, dry food, protein, vegetables and supplements. It also mentions keeping an eye on the rats' health, caring for plants in another room, and maintaining the secrecy of the rats from neighbors.
The document provides care instructions for three rats named Griffin, Ajax and Echo. It details how to change their water, load puzzle games, provide free roam time, wet their cage soil, return them to their cage, and feed them including treats, dry food, protein, vegetables and supplements. It also mentions keeping an eye on the rats' health, caring for plants in another room, and maintaining the secrecy of the rats from neighbors.
The document provides care instructions for three rats named Griffin, Ajax and Echo. It details how to change their water, load puzzle games, provide free roam time, wet their cage soil, return them to their cage, and feed them including treats, dry food, protein, vegetables and supplements. It also mentions keeping an eye on the rats' health, caring for plants in another room, and maintaining the secrecy of the rats from neighbors.
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RAT CARE GUIDE
Griffin
Ajax
Echo
Change water bowl
Every day, please change the water bowl for fresh water. Just pour the old water down the sink and fill it with fresh tap water. The mechanism to unlock the water bowl is a little tricky, rotate the bowl and when you feel it come loose, pull upwards (watch video).
Loading the puzzle games
They have two puzzle games, the wooden one and the blue & green one. 1-2 times per free roam, please load the puzzle games for them to find. For the wooden one, put a pinch of flaked almonds into each box and push it flush against the wall. For the blue & green puzzle, put an almond into each hole. They know how to get the treats out and it’s a great game for them.
Free roam Free roam time is around 6pm-9pm, and lets the boys stretch their legs and cure some boredom. Please close the door to the living room, they are not allowed outside the room. Open the two doors of the cage and hook the ladder into the bottom door (watch video). They will come out on their own, sometimes they choose not to which is fine. The room is rat-proofed so there are no wires or danger in the room when the door is closed. The only thing to watch is that the couch sometimes separates and they like to wriggle into the gap. If this is the case no problem, just try to entice them out by shaking the almond jar. They like it in there so just make sure the sofa pieces are flush against each other before letting them out. Also, they sometimes get into the TV cabinet which are where the only wires are located. They’ve never nibbled on these but please just watch out as anything can happen.
Wet the cage soil
The soil in the base of the cage should be kept moist so it’s diggable. When the schedule calls for it, please fill the pitcher on top of the fridge with tap water, pour it across the soil and give it a mix (you can use the dry food scoop if you don’t want your hands to get dirty. The soil should clump when you squeeze it, but not drip water. Back into the cage When free roam time is coming to a close, it’s time for dinner. They might come in on their own as you distribute the food, a lot of the time I lift them into the cage to speed up the process. If you can’t find one of them, they might be hiding under the cage’s cabinet. Shake the treat jar a little to entice them out. If you have trouble you can reach under the cabinet to grab them (Ajax especially can be guilty of this!). I tried to make their free roam environment easy for you to find them. If you think they might be in the red cardboard box, you can snip the tape on one side and lift off the lid to check.
Treats We have a labelled a jar with treats like coconut, walnuts and almond flakes. Almond flakes are their favourite treats. Feel free to use them as bribes! Treat jar is located on the right hand side of the cabinet below the cage.
Food (dry food nights)
Most days the boys get a dry food mix. The bin is located in the right hand side of the cabinet below the cage. When it’s time for dinner, take 1.25 scoops of food and scatter it around the floor of the cage. Use the scoop to mix the food into the soil, so they can dig around for some enrichment.
Food (protein nights)
Once a week, the boys get a protein meal. The first night (Monday November 1) is boiled eggs. Please take the bowl of boiled eggs in the fridge and use a knife to chop them all up into little pieces. If you do this in the bowl provided it’s much easier, and you can just pour it into the base of the cage. The remaining nights is cat food. Please give them one packet of cat food per night (in the white box labelled ‘other’).
Vegetables A few times a week, the boys get vegetables for dinner as well. The vegetables are a pre-made mix that we keep fresh in the freezer (top drawer). Grab one of the paper bags and pour the vegetables into a bowl. One portion is about the size of one rat’s head. Three portions is about the size of a coaster. You can pour these into the base of the cage frozen, and as they thaw the boys will eat them throughout the night.
DailyRat3 DailyRat3 are vitamins and minerals to supplement the diet. When the schedule calls for it, please take one scoop (included in the jar) and mix it into the bowl with the vegetables and feed as normal.
Dr. Squiggles Dr. Squiggles is additional vitamins. When giving Dr. Squiggles, please add one scoop to the water bowl (it will turn orange) and stir.
Mite treatment 8 drops per rate, each sachet contains 20 drops
Litter box The litter box is on the top right hand corner of the cage, in a dark green container. We usually change the litter box once a week to keep the cage fresh. But in this case we have decided to forgoe this as it is really difficult to do, and usually a two person job. Please let us know if the smell becomes difficult as we have never gone 3 weeks without changing it (it could be just fine).
Enrichment Box Because the rats aren’t getting as much free roam time, I’ve made some enrichment for them as different boredom breakers. They’re everything from puzzles & foraging toys, to chew toys. You can find these in the box marked ‘enrichment’. Each baggie is one day’s worth of enrichment, so if the schedule has a day marked enrichment, just empty the contents of any bag into the base of the cage during dinner time. There is no particular order that this needs to be done in, you can choose any random bag. The neighbours We have two neighbours – Dr. Freeman & wife on the ground floor and Chris on first floor. The neighbours aren’t aware of the rats, and we’d like to keep it that way. We’ve told Chris that you’re here to take care of the plants so if they ask, please use that as your ‘excuse’! 😊
Symptoms of illness The boys can get ill often and quite quickly. We’ll be watching for any signs on the videos you share, but it would be great if you could just keep an eye out as well. Firstly, please watch for balding around the legs and stomach area. Ajax (black and white) has had recent problems with this. If you see any patchiness that wasn’t there before, please let us know. Secondly, please watch out for any head tilts, which could indicate an ear infection. Echo (tan and white) came back with a head tilt the last time we left, so we’re keeping a special eye on him. Lastly, please watch for any lumps and bumps, this can indicate a tumor and can grow quite quickly on rats.
The plants Please ignore the plants in the staircase, but we would greatly appreciate it if you could keep an eye on the plants in Aline’s room! I’m a rare plant collector as a hobby – the plants are little divas so my expectations are low for such a long holiday, but I hope the damage can be minimized. Firstly, the room needs to stay at higher humidity which is achieved with two humidifiers. Please check that the water levels are at the top in both humidifiers. If they need filling, take the pitcher on the fridge in the kitchen, fill with tap water and fill up the humidifier. After this is done, please press the ‘on/off’ button once, and the ‘humidity’ button once after that (see video). Even if the humidifier doesn’t need filling, please do the button pushing exercise on both – they are finnicky and sometimes turn off by themselves so this makes sure they’re on. The other thing I would really appreciate is an eye on the little plant in front of the humidifier on the left. He looks tiny but he’s very special to me – would you mind sharing a photo of him once a week (included in schedule) so I can keep an eye on him? As well, I would appreciate a photo of the whole setup during the second and third week (included in schedule) so I can make sure there are no disasters.
