ideas for a contained play area?

[henry's_mum]

I need ideas on how to organise my place a bit better....
i'm looking for idea's on a contained play area, so the wee buggers are no longer destroying the floors, baseboards, couch, etc.
as much as I LOVE letting them have free run of the place, hubby isn't too keen on it, SO, in the spirit of comprimise, any ideas?

 

[jorats]

coroplast!! If you allow the rats to go to the walls and such, you can line it with coroplast so they can't get to the baseboards. That could make a type of corral for them too.

 

[SQ]

:yeah:

that is what I use in my living room.

 

[ryelle]

Didn't Dahlas or somebody else have a playroom and they lined the walls with boards of wood?

Hm.. i remember seeing pics somewhere...

 

[Dahlas]

I used large sheets of panel board...........hubby has lots laying around so it was cheap. We cut the board in the corners....one from the top halfway down, the other from the bottom halfway up and fit them together........I left one piece not fitted and taped together so I could take off tape and open it to get in to clean.........cheap and easy and tall so so worry's about them getting out.
I will find some pics........

 

[littledevils]

One of our adopters has instructions to a pretty neat playpen on his website (you might have to scroll down a bit)
http://www.squidoo.com/rathug_grey#module27312052

 

[SQ]

I also used board to surround my play area about 4.5 years ago. I found that after about a year it needed to be thrown out because my rats ... Caleb in particular would mark the corners, etc of the play area. The wood I was using could only take being urine marked for so long before scrubbing didn't help and it had to be discarded.

Likely the panel board stands up better then the panels of wood I was using and perhaps you don't have ratties as dedicated to urine marking as sweet little Caleb was.

Edit: that pic looks a lot like the play area I had but mine was 8 feet by 8 feet. My little explorers really enjoyed running around the top of it.

 

[Godmother]

Another solution is a Martins playpen (large). www.martinscages.com It folds up flat, so that you can even use it for travel. The major drawback to getting one of these is the cost of shipping from the US. If you are in the States or if you live close to a border crossing, the playpen is a very affordable option. It is powder coated, easy to clean, and a good size (44" x 44" x 24" high). Not only that, javakittie (www.javakittie.com) makes a great double-fleece mat to put under the playpen so that they have a soft surface and so that they don't muck up the floor underneath the playpen.

Here is a photo from last summer of four of my sweetest-ever rats in the playpen:

 

[mamarat]

I use coroplast tied with tie wraps and it closes like an accordian when I'm done.

 

[Godmother]

Love the sunny yellow coroplast!!

 

[jorats]

I've used hardboard before as well... found them to be very heavy after a while but if you leave it set up, then it should be fine.

 

[SQ]

Personally, I love the large martins playpen as a play pen for the ratties, and coroplast to surround their free range play area (otherwise known as the living room) and to protect the walls from little chewers.

Both playpens and freerange areas have advantages in terms of the types of activities the ratties can do.

 

[LA]

I use cardboard from a fridge box that a local appliance store gave me. It was free.

 

[littledevils]

Personally I also have the large playpen from Martins and I LOVE it!

I got lucky and managed to find one locally, used only 2-3 times for $60. What a score!

 

[Prime654]

Im using Poly Cube Shelves and they seem to work well, but it can be pricey.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11009

(not my playroom btw, but no pics of mine atm)