Agriculture Tractors

Wheel Spinner

How can I train my 1 yr. old pet rat to use his exercise wheel?

He will only climb inside it to sleep in it, and to take food into it and sit and eat. He's about the laziest little thing I've ever seen! I've tried putting peanut butter on the top part, but he just got out and spun it with his little hand until he got to the peanut butter and ate it. He is smart, he knows his name and has been potty trained outside his cage, but I just cannot figure out how to make the little porker use his wheel! I spent a lot of money on it too! It is the largest Silent Spinner brand that clips to his cage. He's really got to lose weight, we give him too many treats, but a diet isn't going to be enough unless he can get exercise when he's up at night. (For those not familiar, rats are nocturnal and are about as active as a pile of mud during the day)
ANY TIPS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED BY MY FAMILY AND OUR FAT LITTLE BANDIT! ) THANKS!

Eh, typical male rat Your boy is at that age when the older male rat becomes a big, boofy, lap rat, and he doesn't really want to do much of anything (except to enjoy his scritches behind his ears). This is absolutely normal behavior. Since female rats are so much more active throughout their entire life, they are more inclined to use wheels..........but not the males. When boys are young and as lean as the girls, they are just as enthusiastic about their wheels. The guys hang out in theirs and use them for sleeping quarters and poo pads.

Rats are far too intelligent to enjoy running on wheels. If they do, it makes them neurotic. Is there a way instead of allowing him access to exercise outside of his cage? Chasing you up and down a hallway would be a good exercise. Use a piece of string and play like you would play with a cat.

Knowing rats the way I do and the reports from many other rat-keepers on my forums, there is nothing you can do to make him use his wheel if he doesn't want to. Most people have given up on wheels and removed them from the cages.

The only way to get him to loose weight is by looking to your family's will-power to *stop* giving him treats, and change his diet. I have only heard of a couple of people deliberately putting their rats on a diet, vet's orders. Their opinions on the idea is that is has been difficult.

Keep in mind that here's nothing wrong with a little chunkiness on your rat. When they get sick they loose weight very quickly and a little more beef on the bones can act as a buffer during illness. I've only had one over-weight male rat and he died from a sudden heart attack. And I've had many big males in my rat-keeping history, and they've been living to a ripe old age.

Feeding fat rats:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=feeding+fat+rats&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAscYqL80.x8jy71l3_Mj6BgazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAsuRZXHyX3jz_HHQlFel4xgazKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=feeding+fat+rats

Sandra Beasley and the Spaz Rats
(Rattery, Rescue, and Rat-care Expert)

http://spazrats.tripod.com

Slave to over 200 pet rats, and member of 12+ rat-only forums in the last 11 years

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