Pet rat poo

[CrankyDoodle]

After months of dh asking begging we've finally bought a pet rat. He had a few as a kid and loved it. He's quite a cute, affectionate little rat and the DC's love him. I've got a few questions though if anyone can answer please. DH can't answer because his mum did all the cleaning
The guy in the pet shop was lovely but I was wrestling a toddler and didn't get to ask my questions there. He said to clear the cage of poo every day. How do you clear rat poo from the cage before they're litter trained? Is it a case of changing all the bedding flooring stuff every day?
I've been trying to pick up pieces in a nappy bag

Any other tips for handling or keeping them would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Both my emojis came out as gin.. maybe the universe is trying to tell me that with enough gin I can pick it all up no problem??

Okay, first thing is please get this rat a friend ASAP. Rats are very sociable and should not be alone in most circumstances. This rat needs at least one ratty friend as soon as you can get one, the shop should never have sold it to you alone and if they are a chain you should contact head office telling them that they let a new rat owner leave with a lone rat. I also suspect that they've likely not advised you well on cages, wheels, food, health and other things either 🙁

Onto your question, I just put the poo into the litter tray and every other day I change it, though will likely change it daily now it's warmer and they're in a slightly smaller space. Leave the tray or for a couple of days and see which corner the rat prefers to poo in and then put the litter tray there.use a different litter as well as it helps them differentiate the poo places vs play places. Though avoid wood shavings as they aren't the greatest for rats, pellet based cat litter is fine but not clay based as that solidifies and can cause obstructions in a rats digestive system.

Sorry, I'm new to this whole postingonlineaboutmylife thing, I changed a bit of the detail. Yes we have two rats, were advised they do so much better in a group so decided on two.
The shop was fantastic and advised on everything from feeding and playing/getting them used to us but with DD being fussy near the end of our time there I didn't get to hear the rest of what was said about cleaning them out.
Thank you for your advice, it's really much appreciated.

Right, well that changes things I have five in one cage and a loner, he is not safe to be in with the others unfortunately and we're having massive quality of life doubts with him at the moment, but it's not very common at all to have rats that need to be loners thankfully.

We're new rat owners too, ds has been on about having a pet of his own and we finally decided on rats - we've got 3 boys, which are in a massive cage in ds's room.
They've been pooing in the litter box surprisingly well, and I read to move any poos in the cage into the box to get them used to the idea that that's where poos go. We've been using toilet paper to do that with (ds has a roll up there now and uses 1 sheet per "pick up", then puts it in the "rat bin" we've set up).

Ds does a quick clean up in the mornings, which involves dealing with poos and if necessary changing newspaper (which is on the bottom of the cage and on each level). We plan on a once-a-week proper clean out of everything.

Seems we're getting the hang of it a bit more now. Any tips on when they're out? We've been finding after a while one of our boys always eventually finds his way under the sofa or TV cabinet then won't come out. So I've been thinking about a sort of playpen for them? That way we could interact and play but they wouldn't be able to get into anything we don't want them to.
Any experience of anything like this? They really seem to enjoy coming out and playing with me and the kids but I'm struggling with keeping my eye on both children and both rats!

rattie 6?! Wow!

Hello, new rat owner!! Am I aiming to get them to wee in the litter tray as well as poop?