Hamsters are nocturnal, sleeping during the day and active at night. They are usually most active until 7pm to 10pm (partly 0pm to 4pm). Therefore, owners should give their rats a good rest during the day and play with them at night. Arbitrarily changing the habits of nocturnal animals can easily lead to a short life span. Why do hamsters always hide? Because hamsters are native to desert areas and sleep in their burrows during the day to avoid attacks from wild animals. It is their instinct to hide in the dark, and they believe that darkness is the only way to feel safe. However, hamsters are a little less alert when they have been around people for a long time and change their wilderness instincts to huff and puff wherever they are. Hamsters inhabit deserts and other areas. Nocturnal. Good at digging burrows. Like to hide food on the sides of their gills before walking to safety and spitting it out, hence the name hamster. The incisors will keep growing, so their upper and lower incisors must constantly gnaw on something hard to sharpen their teeth, on the one hand, to avoid the incisors growing too long and hindering chewing, on the other hand, to keep the incisors sharp. They feed on weed seeds and insects. Most hamsters are solitary animals (except for the Roborovski rat). Unlike group-living animals, hamsters are solitary and highly territorial, especially females. Only during the breeding season do hamsters mate in pairs. However, hamsters only live in couples for a few minutes during mating, after which they go their separate ways. The mother takes on the responsibility of caring for the babies on her own, and the babies are forcibly evicted by the mother after 20 days or so to start living on their own. Hamsters are strange-looking, small, lively and sensitive, very amusing, and odorless, with ornamental value, suitable for pets to keep indoors, so they are regarded as pets in all parts of China.
Edit this section of the feeding manual
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How to pick a hamster
How can you pick a healthier hamster? Here are a few ways for your reference: 1. Choose a hamster with good eyes and no eye boogers. 2. 2, see if the hamster has a runny nose, don't pick if it has. 3, whether the shape of the ear is intact, there is no trace of being bitten. If there is, it means the hamster is too weak or sick and has been bullied and bitten by other hamsters. 4, the teeth are not sticking out, the color of the fur is glossy, and there is no hair loss or tumors. 5, the tail can not have spots, the stomach of the neighborhood is not good, that this hamster may have diarrhea. 6, walking is not normal, there is no feeling of stiffness, limbs healthy or not is also the focus. If it looks good, there should be no problem. 7, no urine stains on the buttocks, do not pick if there. Don't pick one that has urine stains on its buttocks, because it is likely to be sick. The last thing you need to do is to choose a hamster that you like, and in addition to the color of its fur, you should also consider whether it will be close to people. Usually, Syrian hamsters and Carcharias hamsters are easy to get close to after a period of time, while Campbell's hamsters and Roborovski's hamsters are a bit more difficult to get close to, especially Roborovski's hamster which is a very timid and sensitive animal, so it may take a bit of time to gain its trust in you. [1] As for whether it's better to have one or a pair, basically, if it's a Dovvar's hamster, it's better to have more than two. If it's a golden hamster, you can probably keep one, but if you want to keep a pair, it's better to keep them separately, and when it's time to mate and breed, you can put the female into the male's cage, and then separate them after the mating. After mating, the female rat will be grumpy due to pregnancy, so it is better not to touch her to avoid being bitten by her. Of course, if she is docile enough and listens to you, that is. Don't put male and female rats together during the birthing period.
The eleven taboos of hamster feeding
(1) It is forbidden to feed the food that people eat, the salt is too high and the seasoning is too heavy, which will increase the burden on the rat's body. (2) Prohibit direct contact with the sun, rats are very afraid of heat, summer is here, please use a heat sink or marble to cool them down. (3) Please do not wash your hamster in water if it is not necessary. (4) Please know your own hamster species, except for male and female hamsters, which are not allowed to be kept in joint cages, and male and female hamsters must be kept in separate cages if they don't get along. (5) If you are not psychologically prepared or financially capable, please do not combine female and male hamsters in a cage, as the reproduction ability of hamsters is very considerable. (6) Prohibit the use of feed of unknown origin. Please discard any insect or moldy feed and do not feed them! (7) Do not let the rats drink raw water, please let them drink boiled cold water, or mineral water or pure water. (8) Prohibit the use of bamboo chopsticks, popsicle sticks and other things for the rats to grind their teeth, please use the special teething products and feeds for rats on the market. (9) Prohibit the use of newspaper and tissue paper as bedding material. Newspaper has too much ink, and Kleenex contains bleach. (10) It is prohibited to keep rats in a space that is too small, and the space should have at least a wheel, a water bottle, a small nest (except for bears), and other supplies. (11) It is prohibited to keep hamsters in air-conditioned rooms to avoid harming their health.
Hamster keeping environment
The optimal temperature is 20-28℃, avoid direct sunlight or places directly blown by gusts of wind, but pay attention to ventilation. Don't be too close to the TV, stereo, computer, hamsters can hear sounds that humans can't hear and should avoid radiation and noise. Summer: It is best not to open the air conditioner, because when you go out to turn off the air conditioner, and come into the house and open the air conditioner will make the temperature difference inside the house is too big, the hamster is very sensitive to the temperature, and it is easy to catch a cold. Winter: Don't put it outside, hamsters will hibernate because it is too cold. Spread more wood shavings and other bedding materials, and configure a wooden or grass hut for the hamster to keep warm. Or give more napkins for the hamster to make its own nest. The easiest way is to put the whole cage in a cardboard or plastic box, but be careful about ventilation. Don't give them cotton thread woven items to use as nests. It's warm but hamsters are burrowers by nature and they will chew the cotton items out of shape and burrow into them to sleep. However, some unbroken threads can become entangled in their feet or other parts of their body, and some can become dangerously entangled in their necks, causing them to suffocate and die. So don't put any threads in there.
Basic Hamster Supplies
Cages In summer, use a ventilated wire cage, or a half-iron/half-glue cage, such as a field cage; in winter, keep your hamster warm, and a full-glue cage is better for winter. Please do not use wire mesh on the bottom of the cage, as the rats are prone to break bones and injuries. Food bowl Most cages come with a food bowl. If you need to buy your own, you can choose any small container, as long as it is not easy to be knocked over and the edge is not too high, otherwise the hamster can't climb into it. Commonly used containers: glass cigarette jar, soy sauce dish, various small bowls, microwave oven box. Drinker Most cages come with a drinker, and it's best to install one when DIYing because hamsters need to drink. The general design of the water dispenser has stainless steel beads on the front end, so be careful to test whether it leaks or not when you buy it. Don't take a bowl to hold the water directly, because the hamster will wet its fur when drinking water or swim in it, so it is easy to catch a cold and get sick. If you don't have one for a while, feed your hamster some vegetables and fruits first. Toilet A regular plastic box with cat litter is a simple toilet. Remove the clumped litter every day or change it out, depending on your personal hygiene habits. Some hamsters will use it, it is not necessary,. Bathroom Some hamsters will bathe in the toilet with cat litter, although unhygienic, but this is the hamster's preference, at this time there is no longer a need to bathe the room, but some hamsters love to be clean, the owner should buy it a bathroom, put the bath sand for the hamster to enjoy rolling, playing holes to play. Please buy professional products for the bath sand Running Wheel Most of the cages come with running wheels, because wild hamsters have to run 20 kilometers a day, so the right amount of exercise is very important for the hamster, and without enough exercise, the hamster will be too stressed and appear to bite the cage behavior. So careful owners should give hamsters a running wheel. At the same time, because nowadays owners give hamsters very good nutrition, often make hamsters overweight, easy to make hamsters also get cardiovascular disease, so even hamsters should have a normal and healthy body. Be careful when you buy, you should choose the running wheel without seams, the hamster is not easy to be injured. Current price: $10-80. Wood shavings Many materials are available to be used as bedding material for rat cages, but most people will choose wood shavings because it is cleaner and easier to get. Teething stone/teething stick Hamster's teeth will continue to grow, so a teething stick is needed to grind down overgrown teeth. Many hamsters grind their teeth in other ways and don't worry too much when they don't use the whetstone/teething stick you provide. Hut Huts There are ceramic, wooden, grass and plastic huts that hamsters love, because hamsters are animals that love to make holes to live in, and if you have the means, you should match your hamster with a hut, which can be homemade. DIY The first: raising hamsters can use a 50-centimeter-square tank for tropical fish, above the wire mesh to make a cover (easy to swelter in summer, to be paid attention to). When using a wire cage, the hamster grabs the wire and climbs upwards, risking a fall, so it's best to keep the cage not very high and to remove the wire from the bottom of the cage before using it. Line the bottom of the cage with straw, hay or sawdust. The feeding bowl can be made of pottery, preferably heavier. Some twigs can be provided for gnawing to prevent the teeth from growing too long. Nest boxes can be made of wood or paper, etc. Bird nest boxes can be utilized in addition to those that come with the cage. The nest box is lined with hay, sawdust, rags, etc. The sink will not scrape your feet, but it tends to accumulate moisture, so be careful to keep it dry. Also, the sink is deep enough to put in plenty of straw, hay, and other cage substrate that will allow the hamster to dive in, put in dirt, and then lay hay on top. Create a very natural environment where hamsters can dig holes for nests. For drinking water, use a water feeder, mounted at an easy-to-drink height, and add water to a vessel-type pitcher. You can let your hamster play with water in the summer, but don't make the cage too wet. Hamsters have the habit of defecating in a fixed place. Put a potty in the place where it often defecates and put urine or feces in it to make the potty smell bad, so it will use it as a toilet. If you don't use the toilet, don't force it to do so, just clean the cage regularly. In summer, the temperature inside the tank will rise easily, so it is best to move it to a cage in the summer. Keep the cage in a well-ventilated place and be careful not to let direct sunlight in. When it's hot, hamsters don't like to eat solid food, and should be fed water-rich foods such as vegetables. Store food in the fall, and don't forget to check the nesting box frequently to prevent the hamster from going into hibernation due to low temperature. When placing it in a heated room, take care that the temperature difference between day and night is not too great. You can put a plastic bag over the cage or put the cage into a paper-shell box to keep warm. The second one is to make a stencil with three-dimensional embroidery. Very exercise hands-on ability, breathable in summer, warm in winter Materials to buy, production details please see the expansion of reading
Timetable
When you bring the hamster home, as it leaves the environment where it has been living, there will be a relatively long time to seem very sensitive, nervous, and sometimes will appear to bite, bite the cage, do not rest, and refused to eat, etc., and this period of time is to establish trust between you and the hamster! This is the key period to build trust between you and your hamster! Below is a timetable, don't be in a hurry, get along with your hamster little by little: Day 1: Let it get used to the new environment, don't harass it at all, don't touch it, and don't take it to and from the cage. It's best to cover the cage with a rag, as hamsters are less likely to get nervous in a dark environment. Try not to harass them when you put the food bowl in, too. Day 2: You can feed it with your hand and talk to it softly to familiarize it with your smell and voice. Day 5: You can pick it up gently and hold it in the palm of your hand (don't let it fall or run away). Day 10: You can play with it as much as you like. Note: Sleeping hamsters don't like to be disturbed, so make sure he's awake before you pick him up. You should spread his nest so he can see you, then pick him up gently, and don't force him to do so if he doesn't want to be picked up.
Hamster food
(1) Please don't give too much sunflower seeds or high-calorie food to a rat that is too cute; rats tend to get fat and have unbalanced nutrition. Overfat rats are prone to heatstroke in summer, too much skin fat and easy to lose hair. (2) Please do not think that rats do not need to drink water! Water must be supplied and the drinking water should be changed once every two or three days. (3) Please do not feed too much fruits and vegetables at one time, as it may cause death from diarrhea. Most fruits and vegetables contain pesticides, so please wash and dry them with water before feeding. (4) Match the snacks with the main food, increase the snacks and decrease the main food, do not give too many snacks, as fat rats will easily get sick. (5) Please keep the feed and snacks in a sealed jar, or in the refrigerator, and discard any food that breeds insects and ants. Edible food: Vegetables Green vegetables (e.g. Aoji-kai), carrots, spinach, cucumber, cabbage, bok choy, squash (green and yellow vegetables are preferred) Seeds Sunflower seeds, peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts (do not give too much) Fruits Apples, strawberries, cherries, bananas (may stick to the cheek pouches, so try not to give them to the rats), grapes (please do not give them too much as they have a lot of sugar) Grains Chicken feed, feed for turtles, feed for small birds, wheat, etc. Feed for birds, wheat, corn, millet Plants Clover, dandelion, kudzu, plantain (Please do not feed plants that may be contaminated.) Animal protein Beef, chicken, boiled egg white, cheese, milk, yogurt, worms, dried fish for pets Amount of food: It is easy to provide hamsters with a large amount of food, because hamsters have the habit of storing food, and they get very upset if there is less food. Therefore, if you find the food bowl always empty every time you add food it means the food is added too little, and you should also pay attention to clean up the uneaten food in time, especially the fruits and other things with moisture to prevent spoilage. Hamster is an omnivore, you can give it yellow-green vegetables such as pumpkin, cabbage, lettuce and other light-colored vegetables; potatoes, beans, fruits, weeds, seeds and so on. There are also hamster-specific feeding grains. However, it is important to pay attention to feeding some vegetables and fruits when the feeding diet is the mainstay. As a source of protein, you can feed it boiled eggs, cooked dried fish, boiled chicken and cheese, tofu, etc. You can also feed it some dog and cat food. Hamsters have the habit of storing food in their gills. Be careful to change the water regularly. Wash the food bowl and water feeder daily and replace with fresh food and water. Replace nesting materials as well. Check the nest box and leave some food such as fruit or solid feed for the hamster where it accumulates food. Change the cage bottom dressing once a week and clean and sterilize the cage 1-2 times a month.
Hamster Emotions
Hamsters, compared to dogs and cats, are animals that are less likely to get through to their owners. However, it is possible to understand hamster's emotions if you observe them carefully every day. Hamsters can also express their emotions, so look carefully at these actions and messages to understand the hamster's mood. Tidying up the body hair When the hamster tidies up its body hair, it is in a relaxed state. Otherwise, it is the state when the hamster's own smell disappears after the owner strokes the hamster and wants to apply the smell on the body again. Hamsters love their own flavor. Turning over When the owner's hand reaches inside the cage, the hamster will turn over. This is because the hamster is startled or annoyed when the hand is pushed in. The hamster has little or no weaponry to fight the enemy, so it will roll over and use all four feet to resist. At this time, just go over slowly to reassure the hamster. Especially when the hamster is sleeping, don't scare the hamster. Rolling up in a circle You can tell that this is the hamster's sleeping posture, so keep your voice down. However, they will also roll up when they are not in good health, so be careful. When the weather is cold, they will also roll up, so they are trying to keep warm. Cage chewing When a hamster chews on the wire of the cage, it may be that the hamster is trying to escape, and some hamsters will rub the hairs on the top of their nose between the wires, making the top of their nose bald. This behavior is what allows the hamster to grind its teeth and control the length of its teeth. Droopy Ears The easiest thing to see to understand a hamster's mood is the ears. If the ears are drooping, it must be when they are feeling annoyed or scared, and they are also drooping when they have just woken up from a nap. Stiffness After spinning on the wheel, the hamster will suddenly stand still. This is because the hamster is trying to use the wheel to move to a faraway place, and stopping and standing still is to make sure that it has arrived at the right place. Standing up and shaking Standing up is to understand the situation in the distance, feeling to observe the surrounding, paying attention to the sound, and also standing up when reacting to the sound of the feed bag. Lying on the ground When coming out of the cage, the body is located together, lying on the ground and sniffing around. This is a sign of nervousness about a new place and wanting to sniff around. Do not make a lot of noise at this time. Hiding in narrow places Hamsters were originally wild animals that lived in narrow tunnels. When playing indoors, hamsters will always look for narrow and dark places in order to feel at ease, so be careful if the hamster runs to the corner of the room. In addition: hamster such a small thing, be sure to put more food in its cage, to slightly exceed its own needs, it will feel comfortable and happy. On the contrary because hamster has the nature to collect food, food shortage will cause it to panic, even if it has enough food to survive, it will cause it to be restless and irritable. Types of Hamster Pets
When Buying
1. It is best to use the same breed of hamster as different breeds can easily fight. 2. As they are nocturnal animals, they sleep for 12-14 hours a day, and only move and eat in the evening, so it is best to buy them in the evening or at night, so that you can see the active side of the hamster. 3. Generally speaking, a healthy hamster is characterized by sound limbs, eyes, normal ears without secretions, average and soft fur, and dry, hard, granular feces. 4. Hamsters are also afraid of strangers, and when they first come home, they seem to be more sensitive and need two or three days to get used to it before they can have "close contact" with you. On the first day of purchase, it is best to cover the cage with a piece of cloth, because hamsters are less likely to be nervous in a dark environment. Try not to disturb them when you put water and food in the cage. Hamsters are nocturnal animals and like to sleep during the day and come out at night, so don't wake them up when they are sleeping! Four-week-old hamsters are adults. Unlike rats, they have a short tail, or even no tail at all. One of the most interesting things about hamsters is that they know how to hide their food in the sides of their gills and spit it out only when they are in a safe place.
Medical Matters
Precautions for Mothers During Labor: (1) During the pregnancy of a female rat, remember to keep her in a separate cage from the male rat. The male rats may eat the babies; most importantly, the male rats may still be in heat at this time, so if they are not separated from each other, the female rats will become pregnant again while they are still nursing, which will affect their health and even their lifespan. The female rats still have the ability to store sperm, and there is a possibility that one litter will be followed by a second litter. Therefore, it is necessary to separate the male rats from the cage in time. (2) Please help mother mice to replenish their body well, as production is very harmful to the body. You can use flaxseed, nutrient paste, nutrient water, dried fish, bread worms, etc., so that the mother mice can increase their nutrients. (3) Please try not to change the objects and matting in the mother's cage between the first and second months of her life. It is easy to scare the mother mouse and cause her not to nurse her babies or to reclaim (eat) the mice, so do not touch the mice before they reach one month of age! (4) When the mice are one month old, they can leave their mother after their fur grows and their eyes are opened and they are weaned, so you can try to touch the babies! (5) It is best to wait until the mice are full-term before feeding them breadworms, which have shells. At this time, the baby's digestive system is not yet complete, please do not feed breadworms, as it is easy to get indigestion. Mothers will feed the mice themselves, please do not intentionally help the mice to feed. (6) During the pregnancy, please remember to pick up the roller, sometimes the mother will neglect breastfeeding in order to play with the roller.
Self-inspection
(1) Teeth: Mice and rats have incisors that are constantly growing, and sometimes the teeth are too long, making it impossible for them to eat. At this time, you can cut your own teeth, please use small animal teeth cutting tools, if you are afraid to cut, you can bring it to the doctor to cut the teeth. (2) Scent gland: male rats only have it, in the middle of the abdomen, there is a yellow grain of something, that is the scent gland, when the male rats are in heat, the smell here will be particularly heavy. Sometimes the scent glands will be too much, so remember to use hydrogen peroxide mixed with saline at a rate of 1:10 to help them wipe it off! If there is too much, please take them to the veterinary hospital and ask the doctor to clean them. (3) Eyes: If the rat is healthy, its eyes should be very bright and shiny. If they are red, oily, or have eye droppings, it is time to pay attention to them and take them to the doctor. (4) Poop: The rat's poop should be a little hard, the size of a grain of rice, black and odorless. Sometimes it may turn green or red, don't be too nervous, please recall if there is any green or red color in the rat's feed, if there is, it is normal for the poop to be green. If there is, it is normal for the stool to be green. If the stool is soft or has a foul odor, please send it to the doctor as soon as possible. (5) Buccal sacs: Sometimes you have to pay attention to the buccal sacs to see if the food has been eaten, if not, please don't give them any more food. If the food in the bursa is rotten and smelly, it may lead to bursitis. Pay regular attention to the cheek pouches to see if there is any odor of food rotting, and help him to remove the food from the cheek pouches regularly. Use saline to mix with water in a 1:3 ratio, and use a feeding syringe to insert into the cheek pouches to rinse them out. (6) Coat color: Rat's coat is usually soft and shiny. If there is hair loss, please pay attention to whether it is allergy and bring it to the doctor as soon as possible for examination. (7) Body temperature: the body temperature of rats and mice is usually slightly higher than ours when touched by hand, but the feeling is not obvious. If it is obvious that the rat or mouse's body temperature is too high, please send it to the hospital immediately, as it is very likely to be the precursor of heatstroke!
Edit Expenses of Keeping a Ss for a Lifetime
Basic Equipment: Cage: Large space (at least as big as a small organizer), it is best not to buy the domestic ones, they are cheap but unsafe. The rat's feet can easily get stuck and cause fractures, or break out of the cage. And the paint is not safe for rats (rats will chew the cage). If you buy an imported cage, used ones are usually between 50-100. Brand new ones range from 100-300. Or some rat friends DIY organizer box is also good, a full set of get down within 100 can be done, of course, except for the beauty. Rat toilet: rats will be scheduled to go to the toilet (rats are very like clean little animals, but not every good behavior Oh) use their habit, clean up time will be much more convenient. Otherwise, it will make their urine everywhere, and the cage will be full of smell in a day or two. You can buy some plastic products filled with rat sand, or buy a customized rat toilet for rats. In order to make rats develop the habit of defecating at regular intervals, you can use cotton swabs to put their feces in the rat toilet, rats are very sensitive to smell. This can cost anywhere from a few dollars to tens of dollars. Water bottle and food bowl: a dozen dollars or so can be done. (Imported cages usually come with water bottles and food bowls.) Rollers: basically come with the cage. If you are a DIY rat lover, you need to buy your own, or make one yourself. Remember to buy a seamless one, never buy the kind with a seam in the middle, the rat runs very fast. Once the calf is stuck inside, it is easy to break off. Roller is generally divided into non-silent and silent two kinds, the price of this thing is also from 5 yuan to dozens of dollars. Hut: rats are nocturnal animals, so they like to sleep during the day, so you need to prepare a hiding place to give them as a place to sleep, from a small cardboard box to the mouse customized for rats can be a beautiful mouse house (some imported cages with a two-storey lattice floor, can be used as a place to sleep and place). Prices range from a few dollars to tens of dollars. Basic supplies: feed: imported feed packet of about 30-60 yuan, can eat a long time. Some of them advertise the effect of removing urine odor. It is not very recommended to use pigeon or feed store mix their own grains, nutrition does not meet the requirements of rats. Don't think they can eat and absorb everything like house mice, hygiene is not very good, there will be rice worms or other moths (easy to have mold or yellow wheat toxin), but if you really don't have the financial ability to buy too expensive imported feeds, this is the only choice! And strongly avoid giving the rats human snacks. Bedding material: Poplar wood is better but more expensive. A package will be nearly 50 dollars. Pine a lot of people use, from 20-40 yuan have, try to pick the amount of dust is small (that is, you change the wood shavings will not be snotty kind), other kinds of paper, corn burgundy, wood shavings sand and so on. Bathing sand: WILD-308 A packet is about $65 to $90. It can be used for about six months and can be recycled. It should be replaced when an odor develops, and if it gets wet with urine just after a new one is put on, you can take out the wet area separately. Some people will use cat litter instead of bath sand, I do not agree with this practice, cat litter used as rat toilet sand works pretty well. However, for rats, the particles are too big for them to get rid of the bacteria on their bodies. (Remember, don't use water to bathe rats, rats are naturally afraid of water. (Remember not to bathe the rats with water, as they are naturally afraid of water and may die after being washed). Drinking water: Always use plain water, it is better to feed pure water if possible (female rats should be fed fresh milk during lactation). Teething products: There are special teething wood and mineral salt for teething, but rats may not like them, and teething snacks will be more popular. Prices range from 10 to 60 dollars. Don't use anything that doesn't need to be cleaned, like a popsicle stick or something like that! (For those of you who keep them in organizers, make sure you have these. If it's a cage, the rat will chew on the cage to sharpen its teeth, but it's a little noisy.) Does the rat need a bath? Yes! This is a good idea, but rats can't enjoy bathing as much as humans. Because of their small size, bathing would take up too much energy for them and there is a risk of catching a cold. Rats usually clean their own fur to keep their bodies clean, so as owners we don't need to hold them to take a bath. However, you can use a towel dampened with warm water to gently wipe the area around your rat's buttocks. In addition, you can also prepare a soft brush to help the rat to tidy up its hair from time to time, on the one hand, it is a good way to get close to the rat, and on the other hand, it can also check the condition of the rat's skin and limbs at the same time, especially the long-haired species of golden rats need to be tidied up in this way more often. When grooming, you can use a toothbrush with small teeth like a child's toothbrush as a brush. Combing slowly in the direction of hair growth, short-haired species of rats should be done once every two to three weeks, while long-haired species should be done once a week. There are also some rat cleaning products available on the market, such as dry cleaning powder and foam cleaner, which you can also use to make your rat feel more energetic after washing, and to cover up their body odor, but be careful not to get it in their eyes or other parts of their face. They will roll around in the sand to remove the dirt from their fur, which will also satisfy their natural instinct to dig. So basically, as long as you do the above, you don't have to worry about cleaning your rat's fur. If your rat gets sick, it's a very sad and troublesome thing! Because the current pet medicine is still focusing on cats, dogs, horses and so on, which have been with human beings for thousands of years, as for rats and mice, it is only in recent years that the popularity of the disease has risen. There is still a lot of research to be done on rats and mice, and at the moment we only know how to treat some major diseases. Rats and mice are small and have a fast metabolism, so it is difficult to detect the signs of illness in the early stages, and usually by the time they are detected, they are already in a very serious condition, which causes problems in treatment, and may not necessarily lead to a cure. What's more, for the above reasons, there are very few veterinarians who can treat rats and mice, and it's even harder to find a veterinarian who specializes in this field. Therefore, the best way is to do a good job of preventive health care in your daily life, so as to prevent rats and mice from getting sick. Pay attention to environmental hygiene If you have a lazy and dirty litter box owner, your rat will easily get sick! A dirty environment will easily breed bacteria, or attract flies, cockroaches and mites to visit the nest, bringing along some germs as "companions", and the rats will suffer. Nest owners are advised to clean the feeder, feed bowl and poop every day, change the damp wood shavings regularly, and clean the cage weekly and disinfect it with hot water. Wash your hands before and after playing with your rat. Balanced and diversified nutrition Feed the rats with balanced and diversified food, and don't be lazy and just pour some ready-made feeds, because only when they are well-fed can they have resistance! Drinking water is also an area that litter owners tend to neglect. Drinking water should be changed every day, if it is contaminated, and in areas where tap water is not safe to drink, please give rats drinking water for human use, as it is not much to drink anyway. Stable temperature and humidity As rats tend to come from dry areas, please note that the cage should be placed in a dry and quiet place to avoid moisture (therefore, wood shavings should be changed frequently). Rats and mice are sensitive to temperature. In the wild, rats and mice live in holes in the ground, which have a natural thermoregulation function, so the temperature should be maintained at a stable level. In weather with large temperature differences and in winter, care should be taken to keep the cage warm in order to prevent rats and mice from hibernating. Generally speaking, rats are unlikely to hibernate, but they will sleep longer than usual. Avoid stress and tension Rats are sensitive by nature (e.g., the Roborovski's Pale Rat is particularly timid), and when kept in artificial environments, they will easily feel stress and tension, which seems to be the same as human beings, and stress and tension often lead to gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, and even gastric ulcers. Don't play too much with your rat, for example, chasing, forcing it to jump, throwing it in unfamiliar environment, etc. We may find it fun, but your rat may feel pain and fear. To solve the problem of stress in rats, we should provide sufficient space for exercise.