Clean Cage, Fancy Rats

The bottom level is freshly cleaned - and Saké is checking it out.

It occurred to me last night that one of the ways in which I can really tell how much Saké and Sushi's personalities have developed is when we clean their cage. We clean their cage every couple of days, and this is usually a ten minute job where we empty everything out, spray it down with diluted bleach, and then put in clean towels, litter, etc.

If both Dave and I are around, one of us will hold the girls while the other cleans. If only one of us is there though, we usually clean the cage with the girls in it. Since they have two levels, this hasn't been an issue until recently.

When they were really young, I didn't like cleaning the cage with the rats in it because they were not only jumpy but also small and fast. I was worried they'd shoot out of the cage and disappear before we had any idea where they went. Eventually they became more comfortable with us, and we could clean each level of their cage without any concern that they would try to escape. Both Sushi and Saké were still a bit nervous when their cage is emptied, so they would stay on whatever floor that we weren't cleaning, making it easy to quickly empty things out, clean, and replace everything.

But recently this has changed.

Neither Sushi nor Saké mind anymore when we empty out their cage and begin cleaning - in fact, they want to come in for a closer look. This would be fine if we weren't spraying diluted bleach in there - and I don't think either one of them needs to walk through that. So now if we clean with them in the cage, we spend part of the time either covering the trap door between levels, keeping them where they belong, or we  have to continually chase them out of the part of the cage we're cleaning.

I like that this means they have become comfortable not only with Dave and I, but with their life in general.