What To Do When Your Pet Rat Escapes

What To Do When Your Pet Rat Escapes

Before The Search

Before you begin your search, there are a few preliminary things to remember to ensure your rat stays safe during your search:

1.   Remove anything poisonous that is in an area the rat may be able to access. This includes rodent poison, cleaning chemicals, and other toxicities to rats. If you have any mouse or rat traps out, remove those as well.

Don’t let cats or dogs you own wander freely where the rat might be. Always check couches and chairs before sitting on them, and appliances before using them. Basically, you want to be sure your rat is going to be physically safe while they’re loose.

2.   If you know the general area your rat is in, block any exits. For example, if you know they’re somewhere in your room, keep the doors closed, block any vents, and try to contain them as much as possible. This way you can more easily create a safe space for them until they are caught.

3.   Make sure they have access to food and water. If you are unable to catch your rat for a few days or longer, this will keep them from dying from dehydration or starvation. 

7 Steps To Locate Your Lost Rat

As scary as it is losing a pet rat, keeping calm is important, so with that in mind work your way down the below list to help you locate and catch your pet. 

1. Start At The Beginning

This may seem like a non-step, but it’s important to start at the point the rat escaped, the cage. Besides possibly finding a trail that will help you, sometimes after seeing the cage door open and thinking your rats escaped, they are actually hiding in the cage.

Especially if you have deep substrate or a lot of hidey holes in the cage, it’s important to check all these first, to save yourself some stress! I’ve thought I’m missing rats before, and they were just in odd places in the cage.

Come back to the cage throughout the search process, especially if there are still rats in the cage, as they will likely return home eventually to their mischief. 

2. Check Common Areas

If you’ve had your rat for a while, and they’ve been allowed to free roam your house, they likely have a favorite spot or two. When they escape, they are likely to make a beeline for this spot.

I have lost track of our rat Willow during free roam time a few times (she’s a ninja) and at first panicked, but have come to find our clothes closet is her favorite place, and she will eventually end up there.

Doing a general check of every room in the house is a good idea at this point as well. If they are roaming out in the open you will be able to locate the room they’re in and block it off from the rest of the house. 

3. Listen

While you’re searching, try to be as quiet as possible, both to not scare your rat away and to be able to hear any noise the loose rat is making.

Along with this, do not change the lights when going from room to room, as this may startle your loose rat as well. Rats tend to freeze and become silent when startled, so you will be unable to hear anything if this happens!

Spend at least five minutes sitting quietly in each room, listening for any signs of rustling or movement. Putting some treats in a noisy bag or on crinkly paper can aid in this part of the search.  

4. Check Non-Common Areas

When you’ve checked their cage and their normal haunts and you still can’t find them, start digging deeper, and keep listening.

Rats like to climb into dressers, couches, small holes, and anywhere that looks small, dark, and safe. If you think it’s too small for your rat to get into, still check!

Rats can fit through anything they can get their head through. I have seen one of my full grown female rats fit through a one inch gap, which looked impossible until she did it!

Unfortunately, this can sometimes mean the outside as well. If you think your rat escaped outside, it is vital you find them as soon as possible, as they are highly susceptible to being found by predators outside. 

5. Search During A Different Time

Rats are nocturnal, which means while you are frantically searching them during the day, they may be asleep at the bottom of your sock drawer or under your bookcase, waiting until the evening to continue their adventure.

If you’ve only been looking during the morning/afternoon, try searching in the evening or even later in the night. If your rat has found a really good hiding place to sleep during the day, it will be almost impossible to find them, but you may have better luck when they’re moving around. 

6. The Flour And Treats Trick

If nothing seems to be working, this is a great technique to use to determine if your rat is still in the house somewhere.

Put a pile of treats in their favorite spot or near their cage. Spread some flour around the area near the treats. If treats are missing, you can use the tracks in the flour to give you a better direction to where your pet rat is hiding.

7. Motion Detection Cameras

If you have a motion detection camera or two, these can also be used to help locate your rat.

During the night, put one up near the rats’ cage, or somewhere you think the rat may be coming out. If you see nothing, you can change the location of the camera until you locate the place your pet rat is active at night. 

3 Steps to Catch Your Rat

Once you’ve located your rat, follow the below steps to catch them safely. 

1. Calling Them

If you’ve bonded with your rat, and they know their name, this is the easy part of the process. When Willow goes for a joyride to the closet, I stand outside and call her name and she’ll usually come right out.

However, if your rat is newer or more skittish, this step will not likely work. Especially if they have been loose a while, rats can get stressed and not want to come out of their “safe space,” whether that be under the coach, in the wall, or anywhere we can’t reach them. 

2. Treats

Rats love treats and are usually quite happy to receive them! Start with your rat’s favorite treat and hold out your hand offering it to them.

If they won’t leave the hiding space they’re in, don’t become discouraged. It can sometimes take quite a while to lure a rat from where they’re hiding.

When Buttons got under the couch after we’d only had her a month, it took me over an hour on my stomach, speaking softly to her while holding treats in my hand, slowly getting her to come further and further out until I was able to catch her.

If they really don’t seem interested in the treat you are using, try changing it up. Offer them something that has a strong luring smell, like cooked chicken or fish. 

3. Live Rat Trap

When all else fails, a live rat trap can be used to attempt to catch your loose rat. If you are pretty sure your rat has escaped outside, this is a good option to use right off the bat, as you want to catch them as quickly as possible.

With this method, be sure to check the trap very frequently, as being stuck in the trap will likely be very stressful for your rat.

After Catching Your Rat

After your rat is safely caught, check them thoroughly for any injuries or other issues. If they’ve been out for a lengthy amount of time, they will most likely be stressed, especially if they weren’t caught willingly.

After putting them back in their home, make the space as stress-free as possible. Avoid making any loud noises and let them relax back into their environment.

Sadly, sometimes rats aren’t found. It is up to you how long you want to keep searching. Sometimes rats will show back up when you least expect it, but unfortunately sometimes they don’t come back, or pass away while they’re loose.

Prevention is always the best method. Always be sure to fasten the latches on their cage. Double check there are no escape routes.

When you’re bringing new rats home, keep the carrier closed until you are in the house, as hard as it is not to play with them! By preventing options to escape, you may be saving you and your rats a lot of stress!

Final Thoughts

Though a lost rat certainly seems like a cause for panic, the best thing to do is keep calm and think logically. By following a step-by-step process, you can eliminate all the unlikely places they are, and hopefully find them and get them back safely back in their home!

Have you ever had to find and catch a lost pet rat? Share your experiences below!