looking for safety tips and other stuff

[Petunia]

howdy!
I am having a ball with my 6 girls now that they are all living together and getting along so well.
and it's only been about 24 hrs!!
I am so proud of them!

anyway we just spent about 3 hrs in their room. :dance:

I was fiddling with a couple of the things I have in there for them to use as climbing structures (not sure what else to call them LOL) trying to make them safer and more functional

I have one of those wire shelf units that are supposed to go over the back of a toilet; I was keeping hammocks and shelf liners on it
but I don't put the hammocks on the shelves any more because they will fall off when the girls climb the rack, sometimes with a rat inside :shock:

I always keep a pile of fluffy fleece blankets and scraps under this shelf unit but it's still a long way for a little one to fall!

Now that all six are climbing it at the same time, they get a lot more excited and seem more prone to falling! Little nutballs!
so I am working on ways to keep that from happening
I attached some hammocks and some fleece scraps, take a look and tell me please, if there's a better way to do it, to make it safer, ok?

then I found this awesome plastic frame for a set of storage drawers in the trash. It only has one of the drawers but that's not why I brought it home, It looks like something my girls would love to play on :lol:
I find the neatest stuff in the trash around here- bring it home, put it in the tub, wash it down good and disinfect it, and viola! free rat toys!! sweet!

anyway, it turns out that the plastic is a bit too slippery and sloped in such a way that they are having a hard time holding on to it to get up it, although they are persistent :lol:

I taped on some bits of that spongey shelf liner stuff, but that didn't really seem to help them a whole lot. Got any ideas what might work better?


here's the photos of the wire shelves and the plastic frame from the trash- can you please let me know if you see any potential safety hazards in these photos?
thanks!


rats on a rack by catnapt, on Flickr



shelf dwellers by catnapt, on Flickr


climbing structures by catnapt, on Flickr
TO the right of the wire shelves is a shorter set of wire shelves and beside that a step stool/chair combo that has three steps- they climb from one to the other but amazingly, they do not need to have anything to climb up on first to get up that wire shelf unit! they are able to climb the legs without any help from a nearby structure. Totally flips me out to see them do it! such little athletes!


hanging out together by catnapt, on Flickr

 

[hprats]

Wow, that looks like a fun rat gym!

Could you put those wire shelves to the right under the big ones? Otherwise, maybe you could put something else under it, like say that laundry basket, only with stuff overflowing over the edges heh. you'd only have to make the top of it your rat fabrics...Or are they not falling down, are they falling to the sides?

Oh my, I just realized the the white drawer thing to the left has been rattified too! That's awesome!

 

[Petunia]

Wow, that looks like a fun rat gym!

Could you put those wire shelves to the right under the big ones? Otherwise, maybe you could put something else under it, like say that laundry basket, only with stuff overflowing over the edges heh. you'd only have to make the top of it your rat fabrics...Or are they not falling down, are they falling to the sides?

Oh my, I just realized the the white drawer thing to the left has been rattified too! That's awesome!

I had the shorter ones underneath but they didn't use them when they were there...?? they have their own system I guess LOL
they do fall off the sides, so I should move the laundry basket off to the side, good point :thumbup:

oh yeh, the white drawer thing needs some better rattification LOL

it's too slippery, can you think of anything I could put on the frame to give them better traction to climb it?

I put bits of shelf liner taped on but it hasn't been enough. I'm sure there's something that would work better, but what?