I'm sure theres something ironic about my typing this reply just before I go to clean my smellies out
I'll start with citrus - apparently in the peel and juices of citrus fruits there is D-limonene which has been linked to kidney cancer in male rats (also mangos). With regards to female rats people seem undecided - some say that it can cause to much acidity in their systems. They also don't need additional vitamin c as their bodys produce it (how cool would that be in humans
) I think the general feeling is its a bit of an unknown so its up to the owner.
What dried food do you use? One of the worst ones out there is actually Reggie Rat as it is full of colourings and chemicals. There are some good ones
here,I personally use Alpha Herbal Deluxe and then mix in Burgess Supa Excel Rat, dried pasta twirls and sometimes a cereal (plain cornflakes, rice krispies, shredded wheat, etc) and then they get fresh fruit or veg at least every other day. They also get treats like scrambled eggs, oily fish, meat etc.
On to litter; you say they are pooing in the dish - do you put anything in it?
I use carefresh in the litter tray for mine and they generally only pee on shelves if they are overdue being cleaned out. I use layered newspaper then
ecopetbed and then some torn up paper/value loo roll for my boys.
One thing you could try is as soon as they pee in a corner wipe it up with a baby wipe or some diluted vanilla essence - this can help get rid of "territorial" smells.
When Cmot has suitable calmed down and I begin introductions again I will be washing the whole cage with vanilla essence as well as wiping the rats with it as hopefully it'll help them accept each other as they will all smell the same and no-one will have a dominant smell in the cage.
I only clean mine out once a week unless I've done something daft like given them berries (I had red rats last night - I gave them strawberries and forgot - I swear they roll around in the juice on purpose just to scare me and give me a heart attack).
With letting them free-range mine run over the sofa and sometimes when I'm online I let them wander around (and usually) fall asleep on my desk.
So far *touch wood* they haven't gone for any wires but if they did as soon as you saw them doing it, it would probably be too late because their teeth are so sharp. Teeth are also insulated so *in theory* they wouldn't get shocked (it would depend on how much power was running thru and if anything other than the teeth touched the powered bit of the cable).
One of my boys who died a few months back, Rincewind, was a shoulder rat. He loved nothing more than to fall asleep draped over my shoulder. He would stay there for hours - if I pinned my hair up he would wander across the back of my neck to work out which shoulder was more comfortable or gave him the better view.
Merlin on the other hand is annoying in that he likes to sit just under my chin on my chest even if I'm standing up and walking around, the number of scratches I get from where he pulls himself up is daft. He is the one with the sharpest claws too.
Dibbler is still nosey - wants to sniff everything, be everywhere, so he doesn't have a "sitting" place yet. Cmot is the same.
The rolling each other over and then cleaning is called power grooming - you may be able to work out who is the alpha in the cage by seeing who is on top most of the time.
I have only ever seen Cmot brux at me once whereas Rincewind use to sit and do it right in my ear all the time - some rats just don't *shrugs*
It has been thought that rats can only physically feel fear for 20-30 minutes so if possible I always try to get mine out for at least 45 minutes esp when they're new or if they're rescues, just to establish with them that there is nothing to be afraid of outside of the cage. After this has sunk in you can get away with shorter free-ranging times but tbh I keep mine out as much as I can
they took a week to forgive me (and I was daft and had short sleeves on - I looked like something out of a horror movie