Time to clean tails need advice

[Mousey]

My boyfriend and I read up on grooming rats I read that I could use warm water and a soft toothbrush or washrag dipped in warm water scrubbing from base to tip of tail. Is there another methods ya'll use to clean your rats tail?

[mulder]

if your rat has a rat friend then they'll take care of it for you

[Vanilla_Rat]

Rats are very clean animals,however they often forget to wash their tails.And their cagemates will not nessicarily clean their tails for them either.

The toothbrush method works well,but make sure it is a soft bristle toothbrush,like a baby or infant one for example.

[Mousey]

thanks

[Vanilla_Rat]

No problem!

[Kendalle]

hmm i've never washed my rats tails.. they dont seam dirty though..only one of my rats has needed a bath and it was when i first got her and my other rat got one for moral support haha

[pinkie1205]

You can try baby wipes but I've found it's just not enough.

When I first got rats I thought that their tails were always like that. I would look at pics and I always thought my rats were unhealthy and I was doing something wrong. Then I just realized that they were dirty.

You could try giving them a bath. It's really not a bad idea if your rats are like mine. They like to scent mark on each other so sometimes they start to smell like pee...

A soft toothbrush is probably the best method.

[lilspaz68]

My method.

1. Don long-sleeved shirt
2. Lay out tail-washing supplies (towel, dish soap, medium toothbrush)
3. Fill sink with warmish water, put rat in sink
4. Try to prevent, wet, scrambly rat from bolting from sink...just make sure that tail is immersed to soak it for a short bit (minutes if you are lucky )
5. Drain water...rat jumps to countertop
6. Put a bit of dish soap between your fingers and starting at the base of the tail, working down to the tip, I rub down and sideways and try to "scrub" in the soap with my fingers. At this point the rat is walking/running around with a hapless human trying to keep up with The Tail...
7. Take your toothbrush, get that tail again and brush in short strokes down the tail, start off very soft and build up pressure if the rat shows no signs of discomfort...think of it as brushing a horse, short strokes...work your way to the tip
8. Take rat in hand, and rinse tail under flowing water...get that soap off
9. Put soaked rat in towel, and dry them off, and return to cage.
10. Clean up area, clean up poops in sink (scrub that sink good!), and nurse scratches...hehehe.

Its not the best method but it really does help a lot.

[Mousey]

thanks for all the help!