Pet care >>>> Rodent care

Rodent care.

Rodents as a pet can make good company for a person if a cat and a dog are difficult for him to maintain and care for. Household rodents are unpretentious, sociable, attached to the owner and become tame, and over time they can learn various amazing tricks. Domestic rodents are different in nature, habitat, habits and lifestyle (nocturnal or daytime). For this reason, when choosing a rodent as a pet, you should understand well the conditions in which they live and what they eat in order to make it easier for yourself to care for the rodents.

Most rodents in nature live alone, with a few exceptions (guinea pigs, Roborovsky hamsters, mice, chinchillas, chipmunks). Therefore, do not rush to acquire two animals (even of different sexes), if their natural qualities do not dispose to the company, they may not get along and fight with each other.

Of particular importance for home rodents is a cage or terrarium. They should be spacious enough (according to the size of the rodent) so that it would be possible to install living equipment there (a house, a wheel, ladders and platforms for several tiers) and organize a feeding area.

Rodents are very mobile animals, and in order for them to be in a healthy state, they need a lot of space to move. A house or cave in a cage (terrarium) should also have certain dimensions so that a rodent can build a nest there, or make supplies for the winter, or just hide. The rodent will make stocks, even if it is fed to the dump - these are its instincts, so regularly old stocks will need to be removed and replaced with new ones so that they do not disappear and spoil the pet's digestion.

The best bedding for hand rodents is sawdust or shavings, they are hygienic, absorb moisture and are easy to clean out of the cage.

Feeding a pet - a rodent should have its limits. In nature, animals are not always full, so obesity does not threaten them, but with regular home meals, they can gain excessive weight, which will lead to illness and even death of the animal. You can feed two or three times a day, but control the portions. Water is very necessary for the rodent, so the bowl of water should always be full.

It is undesirable to wash rodents in order to clean their fur (especially chinchillas, they "bathe" in quartz sand of a special quality). Caring for six domestic rodents consists in combing out the wool so that there are no tangles.

Home rodents should not be kept in a draft or overheated, so the cages should be placed in places far from radiators and heaters, open windows.

It is dangerous to let some rodents out of the cage for a walk, they will run away and will not return, it is very difficult to catch. But some species of rodents calmly walk around the house outside the cage and even tend to return home themselves - these are rats, guinea pigs, Chinchillas. But we must not forget that a rodent walking around the house can ruin many things: wires, wallpaper, books, furniture, etc.