Sewing/No-sewing toys for rats.

I was cleaning out my winter clothes bin and came across an extra fleece neck warmer and a fleece hat no one wears anymore. So I turned these into a hammock and a cozy nest. The neck wamer I just put through a board I had running across the cage and the hat I hung up using a twist tie. It was soooo cute to see my 2 girls in the hat. A few days later they had chewed into the hat and gone inside it and its now their new nest. This stuff was from the dollar store.

I love the dollar store for their fleece hats. :joy:

So as I was mulling over going to Dollarama to get some more fleece for my new cage, my eyes happened to glance in my closet and spotted that ugly green bathrobe I got for Xmas and never gave away...and I was hit with what Oprah calls an AHA moment. How perfect. I now have two shelf liners with pre-sewn pockets, a nice long belt and long collars for 2 metres worth of climbing ropes, 2 huge sleeves for tube hammocks, and tons and tons of nice towel fabric for washing day liners, extra hammocks and other rattie goodies!!! It's the best Xmas present I ever hated!!! :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

minuke99 said:

So as I was mulling over going to Dollarama to get some more fleece for my new cage, my eyes happened to glance in my closet and spotted that ugly green bathrobe I got for Xmas and never gave away...and I was hit with what Oprah calls an AHA moment. How perfect. I now have two shelf liners with pre-sewn pockets, a nice long belt and long collars for 2 metres worth of climbing ropes, 2 huge sleeves for tube hammocks, and tons and tons of nice towel fabric for washing day liners, extra hammocks and other rattie goodies!!! It's the best Xmas present I ever hated!!! :happydance: :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

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LOL How industrious of you! I wish I had an ugly robe too

i love this post i will have to remeber it the next time i make more rat things

So my babies newest favourite toy...their carrier!!! I am very blessed to work at a church that allows me to bring my babies to work with me. This was one of the considerations I took into account before getting rats as I knew I wouldn't be able to provide them with a mansion cage. They've spent the last month settling into their new home, and 2 weeks ago I added their carrier to their play area (my bed with a bunch of towels and toys). Well they just love it. It probably helps that their is a peanut butter flavour hamster bar in their too...but I love watching them play tag and they bounce in and out of it (I had no idea rats could just so high!!!) And last week they made their first trip into the office with me. I had absolutely no problem getting them into the carrier as they were already so comfortable with it. If fact the biggest problem was getting them out since the office was strange to them. So I just left them in it with the door open, and eventually they came out on their own and explored their office home. I am having so much fun with these little girls, I can see why so many of you have...so many of them

Thats too cute minuke!!
Oh btw i :heart: :heart: your avatar!! Its adorable!!!!

melon_mayhem said:

Thats too cute minuke!!
Oh btw i :heart: :heart: your avatar!! Its adorable!!!!

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Thanks!!! I work with graphics for my church so I get access to lots of adorable pictures.

Such great ideas!!

I can't sew and am just lazy, so I just cut squares of fabric and make hammocks with paper clips. It's not as pretty but it does the job, and is way less expensive and time consuming if your rats chew hammocks, luckily mine don't. I find second hand pillow cases make good hammocks and hidey things for my rats too, and you can find pretty neat ones at thrift stores.

Sounds like a lot of fun I definetly have a lot of old cloths and things I can cut up.

I have one question though. what materials would you say are unsafe? Should I be concerned with clothing that unravels for the off chance that someone might get caught? I ask because I knit and Crochet and can make stuff for them, Unless that is a bad idea.

I like to make "treat pouches"! You can take your scraps from making hammies and sew two small pieces of cotten or cotten/fleece together, add a treat(like cereal or a yogie ) and your rats will love to tear though it.... My girls always steal them as soon as I make them :shock:

I just found this really cool video on youtube about how to make a 3-layer hammock out of fleece with no sewing. She makes one in 4 minutes, it's great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eQccD9UXPo

[EDIT: She has a few other videos too with different types of hammocks :mrgreen: ]

I've used face clothes and paper clips to make hammocks. Just poke the clip through the corner and rotate till the cloth is in the centre of the clip. Slip the large outer end over a bar till it clicks past the inner loop. Make sure the wire ends are outside the cage. Works great and you can string a few together to make longer attachments. Also works great in a varikennel to make a hammock in it for travel. Lots of my guys liked to be up to look out of the little windows.

abazoo said:

I like to make "treat pouches"! You can take your scraps from making hammies and sew two small pieces of cotten or cotten/fleece together, add a treat(like cereal or a yogie ) and your rats will love to tear though it.... My girls always steal them as soon as I make them :shock:

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A varation on this is to instead fill it with rice so it can be frozen. It is great for a cool spot for your rat to lay on (or hot during the winter, just microwave it but TEST THE TEMPERAtURE PLEASE!) *and* can be used as a hot/cold compress.

A no sew way to do this is to cut out a piece of fabric two to three inches larger than you want it to end up. Fold it in half. On the cut sides, slice every half inch or so about 2-3 inches in (but be consistent with how far you cut.) Tie knots on two of the three sides like a no sew hammock. Fill with rice. Tie the last sides knots and voila a quick and easy no sew hot cold compress or resting pad Sorry if this was posted earlier on here I didn't read every reply thoroughly (oops the mad smiley wans't what I wanted.)

Looking good.
I sew also suff for my rats, and they love it.
and there is nothing better than to sew something for my rats,
and then see how happy they are for what I've made for them.

Cube for my rats i have sew.

i'm so making that 2 layer no sew.. acctually gonna make a bunchhhh lol

Also when looking at that, a video on the side was " how to sleep in a hammock" I giggled too much at that.

Made this today! Some old t-shirts cut into strips. Made 3 separate braids then braided those 3 together and tied the ends. Gonna go out and get some shower hooks and then will have a bridge or hanging rope for my cage when it comes in. Took about an hour. Most of that was cutting strips and tying knots. Very easy!