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On this page you can find out how I bath my rats and hopefully get some ideas of how to go about it if your having trouble or have never done it before !

First things first I'd like to thank my reluctant models Apollo and Tigger and my assistant Ben who held them still for all the photos, I wouldn't have been able to get such good photos with out them.

Why Bath your rats ?

Ok so lets sort out reasons why you might want to bath your rats and also situations where it might not be such a good idea.

The three main reasons I can think of that you would want to bath your rat are as follows ...

	You may simply want to clean your rats as they have gotten a bit smelly and you feel they need to be freshened up!
	Your going to a show and your rat needs it as part of his/hers beauty treatment before hand. (This does not always apply but it is more true for the lighter varieties).
	For some kind of medical reason e.g. some kind of parasite or skin irritation. (In which case tea tree shampoo, which you can buy for dogs is very good as tea tree is a natural antiseptic and also helps to cool and relieve the skin).

It is not a good idea to bath your rats too frequently as you can make the skin and fur dry as you are removing too much of their natural oils which can lead to irritation and flaky skin. I also wouldn't bath rats on a very hot day as they probably wont appreciate the stress of it and water that is too cool could shock them, if you want to cool them down maybe give them the option of a water tray in their cage. Also bare in mind that it can be too much to put old or very ill rats through the hassle of being bathed as it could be to much for them.

Finally if you are bathing in preparation for a show I don't recommend bathing just before the big day as their coat will need time to settle and you could end up taking something that looks more like a hedgehog then a rat!

What you will need !

Right in order to bath your rats you will need the following....

	Shampoo - It is best to use small animal, baby or cat/dog shampoo for your rats as ordinary shampoo will be too strong for them and dry their coats out. If you have a white rat then you can purchase special whitening shampoo for dogs, this is normally a blue colour as this pigment makes a white coat seem even whiter.
	Towels - You will need several (three at least) for sitting your rat on and drying them.
	A soft tooth brush - for cleaning your rats tails.
	Little pieces of sponge - This is for cleaning ears and tails.
	A jug - This is optional but can be handy when you have to rinse your rats.
	Biscuit or your ratties favourite treat- Apollo and Tigger say all rats disserve this after being bathed !

You will also need a secure room to bath them in, with access to a sink and surface on which to shampoo them. This room must also be free from drafts etc so somewhere like a bathroom or small kitchen is ideal.

Step by step guide!

This section is a step by step guide to bathing a rat, or at least these are the stages I go through to clean my rats.

N.B. - When bathing your rats expect many squeaks of protest! as long as your being careful its not because you hurting them its simply because they don't like it. Believe me even the most confident bucks will squeak when being bathed.

Step 1.

To start with I get everything ready. Preparation is important as it reduces the time spent bathing the rats and thus the stress on them. I normally lay out a towel on a work surface or the toilet seat lid if I'm doing it in the bathroom then I put a littler bit of shampoo on the sink between the taps ready to use and run a small puddle of warm water in the sink. I then get the tooth brush and little pieces of sponge and put them somewhere I'll have easy access to.

1. 2.

I start with the tail, first I wet it and then a gently use the soft toothbrush with a little shampoo on it to loosen the dirt (photo 1). Be careful not to be too harsh with the tail as the skin on it is sensitive and never brush it up the wrong way. You'll find that the tooth brush goes a delightful brown/orange colour! if your rat's tail is not very clean.

At this point your rat will either be sitting there thinking what's going on, which is good cause it will allow you to clean his/hers tail with out a fuss or they'll try and eat the tooth brush or they'll be trying to escape in which case you'll have to have a firm hold of them.

I then use one on the small pieces of sponge, I wet it and clean the first lot of shampoo off, I then rinse the sponge add a little shampoo and wipe the tail to remove any more dirt (photo 2). You may wish to repeat the above, but its not normally necessary because the tail will have a bit of a clean when you move on to wash the body.

Photo 3 shows before and after shots of a clean and dirty tail !

Step 2.

This is the ear cleaning stage... for this you'll need a really tiny amount of shampoo on a damp piece of sponge. You have to be very careful not to get it in your rats eyes here, so if your worried and your not cleaning them for show purposes or their ears don't seem that dirty then leave this stage out. To clean there ears all you have to do is give them a wipe, if your rats particularly tolerant then you can hold the ear flap and wipe them more accurately.

Apollo says: " I don't know if I like this !?"

Step 3.

The dunking stage! You'll need to have got ride of your puddle of water her cleaned away the little bit of shampoo and run approx a quarter to a half a sink full of warm water (make sure its not too hot or too cold for you rat before you put them in it!). Then you'll need some fresh shampoo ready on the side.

1. 2.

Very simply all you do here is wet the rat ready for shampooing. Make sure you don't wet their head, but also make sure you wet them right down to their skin and not just on their top coat (photo 1+2). Most rats don't like being rinsed and I usually end up with them trying to volt up my arms or jumping out of the sink, be prepared to get scratched ! Once their wet hold them up and let the excess drip off.

Step 4.

Place your wet ratty on your towel covered surface and lather a small amount of shampoo in your hands then gently rub your rat all over (except for their head) right down to the skin, again making sure you avoid the eyes. At this point if they haven't squeaked they definitely will, much like when you hear them squeaking when they groom each other!

Apollo: "I definitely don't like this, that stuffs smelly! - squeak, squeak, squeak!".

N.B.- Once your rats fur is wet, its easier to see their skin and so you can check for any hidden scabs etc.

Step 5.

This step is simply a repeat of step 3 (except you don't need to get any new shampoo ready). Make sure you remove all the shampoo from their coat here otherwise they could get scurfy once they are dry. If your rat will tolerate it and you have single tap that allows you to mix hot and cold then you can hold them under the flowing tap (once it is at the right temperature) this way you can be sure to get all the shampoo out, but be careful not to get their heads wet!

Before going on to step 6 you can repeat step 4 and 3 again, but I don't normally do this as they are usually clean enough after one go and they've usually had enough by this point too.

Step 6.

Here you will need your remaining towels to dry your rather peeved and bedraggled looking rat. Although they've squeaked the house down up until this point, I believe they actually quite like being dried and they look super cute all tucked up in the towel. You'll need to sit them on the towel or wrap the towel round them so just their heads poking out and then gently rub them, you'll never get them completely dry but you can get a lot of the excess water off and then your rat will do the rest of the work by giving him/herself a good lick all over.

Apollo (left) and Tigger (right) being dried.

So there you go, you have bathed your rats now there's only two things to remember... return them to a warm cage out of drafts AND don't forget to tell them how good they've been and give them their treat! ;o)

Apollo tucking in to some biscuit!

I hope this page has been useful for you, please let me know how you get on and what you think of my bathing method.

Happy bathing !

Em.

Last updated 26th August 2008

All photo's and some art work are produced by me, unless stated otherwise. Please do not take any of my art work or photos as allot of work has gone into them. If you do wish to use some of my art/gifs/photos then please email me for permission first.

Disclaimer = I do not claim to be an authority on rodents or rats and any information on this page is just opinions and advice and is by no means a substitute for good books or veterinary advice. All the toys on the toys page are just ideas and may not have been tried out so it is up to you to implement them and judge there safety.