Swimming rats? I think not!

[Lucara]

So, I've seen a few videos of peoples pet rats swimming around, bobbing for peas, and just having a good ol' time. SO, I thought it would be good exercise for my boys to swim around for a little bit since Alex is just one giant marshmellow with eyeballs. Apparently, swimming is for the lower class of rats because boy my rats did NOT like it! They wanted nothing more than to get their butts outa there! I tried giving them peas and they just ignored them, I tried patting on the water just out of their reach so they would swim to me with no luck.
Aiden decided that he would try to jump to my hand and well...the poor guy landed head first into the water and startled the heck out of him. I kept the water a nice warm temp so it wouldnt freeze their little bums but I guess its just not for them.
Aiden was so pi**ed he wouldn't hold still for the camera so heres some pics of Alex grooming himself.

Just wait until your sleeping...I'm gana keeel you!!

 

[JohnEDove]

I know rats CAN swim and can hold their breath for 10 minutes or so under water but I never heard anyone say that they are suppose to like swimming.

 

[Lucara]

I know rats CAN swim and can hold their breath for 10 minutes or so under water but I never heard anyone say that they are suppose to like swimming.

Yeah I know, it was one of those things I wanted to test. =) Mine are much happier snoozing all day in their hammock

 

[JohnEDove]

I don't have the guts to try to get mine to swim. They'd likely gang up on me.

 

[mouse]

i know rats can swim, but mine never did. they didn't mind a warm bath and shampoo with pet shampoo so. didn't make a fuss either.
i miss my rats. they were hooded rats and a few dumbo's.
your are cute.

 

[LeilaNami]

Don't feel bad. Mine don't like it either

 

[buthus]

We are doing major restoration on our pool, so our current rats dont have that summer fun...but a couple years back we had 4 boys and 4 girls... all which got thrown into the pool on hot days!
I used to just chuck the big boyz out into the water! (just a gentle chuck...slight rat belly flops) We also build a raft so they could hang out in the pool while we swam. When one would go for it and jump off the raft the others would soon follow. They would always swim towards the shallow end stairs (or close) even if the raft was floating next to another side wall. (rats learn something and they stick to it. )
They would scramble up out of the pool and sit there and clean/wipe off and then each would head to his/her favorite place to hang in the yard or back to my room and the rat shelves.
BTW they were double-rex ...so when they swam around you ..they felt/looked like wet little people.

 

[Lindsay]

hahaha. Yeah. My rats have always hated the bath tub. If you want to try them with pea fishing then you can use a clean paint tray or even just a pie plate with some water and peas in it. I did have one rat that jumped into the bathtub with me once and started swimming around, but she was the ONLY one out of the 22 rats that I have had over the years that didn't seem to mind it. The rest of them HATED the tub.