Ratty Boredome Breakers?

[Floyds mum]

What things do people give their rattys to gnaw on?
Ive seen pets at home's woodlands range.

 

[VickiandKev]

Best thing you can do is save your old cardboard inserts from your loo rolls, then cover one end with paper (newspaper will do) fill with treats - dried fruit, nuts, dry pasta, broken up crackers - then cover the other end and hang from the bars or roof of the cage with some string and you have a ratty pinata - they absolutely love them and can take ages to figure them out

Also, an old tissue box filled with scrunched up newspaper - with a treat or two in the odd bit of scrunched up paper - they will pull all the paper out to find the treats and then nine times out of ten they'll put the paper back and use the box as a bed
You can also use hanging baskets to make this more fun and do the same thing but suspend it

Strips of newspaper hung from somewhere in the cage or, even better, part of an old yellow pages can provide hours if your ratties are a bit homely. Mine love to pull down strips and make their own beds.

Personally, I've found all of these are much better received than anything you can buy. Except maybe for the little edible books lol - I have one rat who is obsessed with books - she loves to flick through the pages and then nibble a few so I buy her the mini books from pets at home

 

[Floyds mum]

Best thing you can do is save your old cardboard inserts from your loo rolls, then cover one end with paper (newspaper will do) fill with treats - dried fruit, nuts, dry pasta, broken up crackers - then cover the other end and hang from the bars or roof of the cage with some string and you have a ratty pinata - they absolutely love them and can take ages to figure them out

Also, an old tissue box filled with scrunched up newspaper - with a treat or two in the odd bit of scrunched up paper - they will pull all the paper out to find the treats and then nine times out of ten they'll put the paper back and use the box as a bed
You can also use hanging baskets to make this more fun and do the same thing but suspend it

Strips of newspaper hung from somewhere in the cage or, even better, part of an old yellow pages can provide hours if your ratties are a bit homely. Mine love to pull down strips and make their own beds.

Personally, I've found all of these are much better received than anything you can buy. Except maybe for the little edible books lol - I have one rat who is obsessed with books - she loves to flick through the pages and then nibble a few so I buy her the mini books from pets at home

Lol ok thanx will try a few, i always used to keep all the loo roll tubes and they lasted about 5 mins so they must have been well recieved lol, ive got a kitchen roll one with a few pieces of kitchen roll left on
He comes today so pics this evening

 

[Ashley1991]

woo pics cant wait

ash

 

[OohFeeshy]

The tubes from tin foil and cling film are a lot thicker and take a lot more time and effort to chew through.

 

[Floyds mum]

Ok thanx Feeshy.
He is home now and has hidden in a corner and is sleeping, he has some food to nibble on and a full water bottle lol he nibbled on a seedy stick when he 1st went in hopefully he will be awake later.

 

[Floyds mum]

How should i leave him alone for till i get him out etc?
He has been well socialised at the store i got him from, the guy walked around with various rattys on his shoulders

 

[Ryefish]

did you only get one?

 

[Floyds mum]

Yes cos ive got another coming in the next day or so.

 

[Ryefish]

ah, what a relief lol.
When did you get him? I always leave them for the first night, then let them explore a bed or a table or something the next day. He may protest, but the more you pick him up whilst he is a baby the better he will be when hes a bit older

 

[Floyds mum]

ah, what a relief lol.
When did you get him? I always leave them for the first night, then let them explore a bed or a table or something the next day. He may protest, but the more you pick him up whilst he is a baby the better he will be when hes a bit older

Yesterday afternoon, i left him last night and got him out today so i could re-arrange his cage abit and take his box out, ive been talking to him all the time lol and he's started coming to me in his cage yay

 

[Floyds mum]

This is my new baby harvey 10 weeks old

 

[Ashley1991]

he is well cute!

ash

 

[Ryefish]

i had a black hooded rat called Harvey he is very cute

 

[VickiandKev]

Awwww, isn't he a cutey? Black hoodies one of the nicest varieties.

When's his little friend coming?

Just as a quick note: it's best with bucks to introduce them to each other as young as possible, once they begin to get hormonal (often around 3 months/12 weeks) they can be very difficult to integrate successfully with other rats. When I used to keeps lots of rats, I was often the only person that would take fully grown bucks from rescues and introduce them into my established groups - it's possible but you need experience to make it work.

You're also best off getting a similar-sized buck of the same age or younger, or even better, get two friends and have a trio - this is my 'minimum' group size for various reasons