Teach my rats to run on a wheel, or other excersise??

Question

so it is the summer and despite my best efforts, i feel like i can't quite get my rats out for more than and hour or two a day. i tried fencing off area's they can go under or get stuck in in my room but one of them is quite adventerous and enjoys hiding in hard places to get her out of. my mom isnt a fan of letting them have the run of the basement either. i bought them an excersise ball and one of them will use it for a while, but the other isnt strong enough to push it and doesn't really want anything to do with it. ive brought them outside a few times but one of them goes and runs off and then comes back and hides under my leg and the other one just jumps on my shoulder and wants nothing to do with anything. they also have an excersise wheel but neither of them ever use it. so i was wondering if there are any other forms of excersise i can give them or if there is anyway i can train them to use the wheel??

Answer 1

just let them play with u fro a bit every day

Answer 2

well are they males or females bc generally males are lazy and laid back while females are very active, so maybe your rats are just more laid back if they just end up falling asleep when they're let to run around on your couch(?)

and maybe theyre more interested in chillin w you while you're on the computer and not as interested with exploring. otherwise, i'd "rat proof" your room more so then they can't go into hard to hide spaces so its not so hard to get at them (also put toys for them in the area and just put them away when theyre back in their cage)

what i like to do with my rats is let them run around with toys on a table bc its easy to get them when i want to put them back in their cage, they dont get frightened by a tall scary object like they might if theyre on the floor, and they seem to like it as long as they have toys to explore