Daytime and Rats

Sam says, "Seriously, I'm try to snooze here."

I just read an interesting article from Popular Science about how rats exposed to lots of light become depressed.  Rather, they prefer darkness.

This is a bit of a no brainer to me, but I have to think about how my current rat room is set up.  They have a night light on all night for my benefit.  Poor little guys.

Oh, and I have one criticism of the article.  It is my understanding and experience that rats are NOT nocturnal, but rather crepuscular.  They prefer dawn and evening hours and prefer to sleep during the night and daytime.  I definitely see my guys more active during those hours, but they seem to party all night, too.  (Indeed, last night they knocked over their litter box.  sigh.)  And, Doc snoozes in the afternoon as i frequently spend some time with him during the morning hours.  He eagerly waits for me to take him out for his morning romp, but if I bother him in the afternoon, I get the Doc's patented evil eye.

Regardless of whether rats are nocturnal or crepuscular, if they develop depression when exposed to more light than darkness, that's something to consider for pet rat owners.