Cage accessories help/ideas?

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jaana

Member
Joined
May 7, 2019
Messages
7
Location
United Kingdom
Hello,
I have the the below cage and was wondering how to get/make things to fill it up.

24020_furet_tower2_2.jpg


For example cages like this...

56cda800a351f312681710d5be6774a8.jpg


236a60a422ba3c1fe42061ed5d54c0d4.jpg


These are just pictures from pinterest.

Any help would be great :)

Thanks
 
There are links for toy and enrichment ideas as well as pics of people's cages in the Reference Thread.
It would be great if people added new pics and new suggestions

But just off the top of my head:
1 or 2 space pods
a 12 inch diameter (or larger) solid wheel
lots of hammocks
different types of tubes in the bottom and on the sides of the cage
a house
boxes with 3 holes containing paper
more litter boxes
at least 2 sources of water, 1 of which needs to be a water dish that can not be upset
food dish
thick bird rope attached to the cage on a slant for walking up
hanging toilet paper
and see the Reference Thread for ideas
 
Last edited:
Brill
There are links for toy and enrichment ideas as well as pics of people's cages in the Reference Thread.
I would be great if people added new pics and new suggestions

But just off the top of my head:
1 or 2 space pods
a 12 inch diameter (or larger) solid wheel
lots of hammocks
different types of tubes in the bottom and on the sides of the cage
a house
boxes with 3 holes containing paper
more litter boxes
at least 2 sources of water, 1 of which needs to be a water dish that can not be upset
food dish
thick bird rope attached to the cage on a slant for walking up
hanging toilet paper
and see the Reference Thread for ideas
brillant thank you
 
If you want to make beds and hammocks out of fleece, I'd recommend going to goodwill and picking up some blankets instead of going to a fabric store. It's much cheaper. I like to find the homemade no-sew blankets, cut off all of the knots holding them together, and that way I get two different patterns of fleece for cheap, and the knots I like to throw into a box for them to dig into/throw around ("dig box")
 
And don't forget to save all of your cardboard boxes! They make great houses
 
And don't forget to save all of your cardboard boxes! They make great houses
They totally make the best hides. My rats love them, but do prefer their plastic hides more, for whatever reason. At least for me, cardboard boxes last a week at the very most. Either they've just torn the box to shreds (a favorite pastime of a couple of my boys), or they've just caked it in urine. Both of which make the hide unable to be used.
 
Rosemary's advice is arguably the best you'll ever get on the topic of cage accessories and hideouts. Never, EVER, throw out a cardboard box that a rattie can fit into! My rule of thumb is....if they can fit into it and turn around, then it's big enough to serve some purpose or another. And I keep all my paper shopping bags. My area has banned the plastic ones,which I used as trash bags when spot cleaning. But I grab a stockpile of new ones whenever I'm away from home. But the paper bags are great cage liners and liners for boxes too, and of course, newspapers never see the trash can until they've been peed on, lol.
 
I find that rats love boxes with a hole in 2 sides, 1 - 2 holes in the top, and filled with crumpled paper such as newsprint. (see links) ……. and as Jorats mentioned (see links) boxes can be attached to make castles etc for rats to enjoy in their free range play area

Here is a box that was enjoyed for awhile - rats enjoy boxes of all sizes

IMG_1053.JPG


IMG_1063.JPG
 
SQ is exactly, perfectly on point with the boxes stuffed with crumpled paper description. I do the exact same thing. 2 holes are necessary for the occasional aggressive rat who will trap another rat in the box unless there are 2 holes. So always make 2 holes unless there's only 1 rat. And lay paper down as pee liners that can be replaced without having to replace the box as often. And I call the "attached boxes" their "maze array", which is another way of saying "castle". Lol. So SQ couldn't have said it better, except for leaving out the pee liners. Lol
 
There are links for toy and enrichment ideas as well as pics of people's cages in the Reference Thread.
It would be great if people added new pics and new suggestions

But just off the top of my head:
1 or 2 space pods
a 12 inch diameter (or larger) solid wheel
lots of hammocks
different types of tubes in the bottom and on the sides of the cage
a house
boxes with 3 holes containing paper
more litter boxes
at least 2 sources of water, 1 of which needs to be a water dish that can not be upset
food dish
thick bird rope attached to the cage on a slant for walking up
hanging toilet paper
and see the Reference Thread for ideas
The water bowl is a great idea for older and I'll rats. Rats with respiratory distress can not drink from bottles as they fear choking and won't risk it. Once they reach this point I always move them to my hospice cage (a big carrier on a table adjacent toy my bed.) which has a bowl of Ensure refilled at every opportunity. I lay down a free towels (so that the dying rat can have accidents) and put a litter tray in the carrier also. I change out the top towel and rotate the others daily so that any evidence of rat activity is kept to a minimum. My rats are all litter trained but accidents happen. And tats will make a mess from eating, and just being rats. Anyway, so yeah, most of my rats eventually stop eating and drinking water, but can, and do, live for months quite happily on nothing more than Ensure. I have a boy now who is the record holder....he has lived many months on Ensure, even gaining weight since he is such a quiet one that I didn't realize he had stopped eating until I noticed his hidden stash. Instead of eating his food he was hiding it. And the stash was so big that it hit me that he couldn't be eating any of his food! So I started him on Ensure, which he was already getting twice a day with medication. He had been sustaining on his Ensure and meds for some time, and had lost a lot of weight, which I attributed to his just being old. Amazingly, he gained much of it back after weeks of constant Ensure refills, and is now doing quite well. Sad I know, but he's a survivor. Who am I to put him down if he can live on Ensure quite happily.
 
I have read that small tubes such as toilet paper, paper towel etc tubes must be cut in half length wise as rats can get stuck in them - and some rats have died.
 
I have read that small tubes such as toilet paper, paper towel etc tubes must be cut in half length wise as rats can get stuck in them - and some rats have died.

what I do is cut them length ways and basically use 2 tubes and overlap one another to make a bigger tube if that makes sense.
 
As long as the tubes can expand sideways if the rat gets stuck inside of it so they are not trapped.
I believe the tubes suffocated the rats I read about, as they were unable to breath.
I never realised this could be a danger until I read of tragedies occurring
 
As long as the tubes can expand sideways if the rat gets stuck inside of it so they are not trapped.
I believe the tubes suffocated the rats I read about, as they were unable to breath.
I never realised this could be a danger until I read of tragedies occurring

Oh I see...no defiantly big enough to fit my ratties through. But I will always be around to keep any eye on them and will bare this in mind. Thankyou.
 
As long as the tubes can expand sideways if the rat gets stuck inside of it so they are not trapped.
I believe the tubes suffocated the rats I read about, as they were unable to breath.
I never realised this could be a danger until I read of tragedies occurring

Just my humble opinion, but I don't see a rat ever getting stuck in a tube that is big enough for him to fit inside of, but just to be safe, I would only use a tube that I could see through while the rat was inside. Rats have whiskers for a good reason, if they put their head into something and their whiskers brush on the sides then they know that they cant find through the space. That said, many people overfeed their rats, trust me, I get many severely overweight rats as permanent fosters, and they don't understand that their bodies are bigger than their whiskers lead them to believe. So there's that. You can't always trust your instincts. I don't have any tubes because I don't trust their safety.
 
Back
Top