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I am always trying to come up with ideas for my rats and different uses for things I find or have around the house, I
will add them as I come up with more!
Ratty Ideas
Drippy Water bottles
I have a couple of flat water dishes for reptiles, they look
like they are made
of stone, I put a rock in them, and I put them under drippy water bottles to
catch the drips and keep the bedding/litter dry.The rock keeps the rats from
scooching them around. Works very well.
Non Toxic cage freshener
1 part vanilla 3 parts water (or whatever mixture smells good to you), 1 small
squirt bottle
Lightly spray bedding fabric or whatever, not to soaking. Makes everything
smell good and no bad chemicals to make them sick. Can even spray ratties if its warm.
Cage Wipedown and Cleanings At the dollar store I found some all natural baby wipes. I can use them
the way they are to wipe down a smelly or slightly dirty rat. But I also put
some into an airtight container with a bit of vinagar water to wipe down cage
shelves and accesories.
Clean up
A small shop vac is a must for quick cleaning!
Cheap igloos, "hammocks", and hidey holes
Dollars stores are fantastic places to find all kinds
of stuff for ratties, They
have plastic bowls, collendars, and plastic baskets that will make great places
for rats to play and sleep.
Plastic collendars and bowl sets will make great igloos, CAREFULLY cut out a
door, turn upside down and there you go.
Lots of sizes of plastic boxes with lids can make great travel ages, get
the
ones with the lids that hook on, drill some air holes, or cut a peice out and
replace with hardware cloth and zip ties and put in some cozy fabric and you
can take rats on any short trip.
Plastic baskets in various sizes can have a door cut in them and turned upside
down they make great hide boxes. Or you can attach shower curtain rings to
them and hang them from the top of the cage to make a great more chew
proof "hammock". You can even attach two of them top sides together to make
a hut. Again stuff with soft fabric.
Toys
Rats will play with anything, they will also chew everthing. The pet,baby and
childrens sections can be great for finding small toys for rats. I have tried
stuffed toys but they always get holes and while stuffing might not be that
dangerous I have had stuffed toys that are filled with little plastic balls so
you are safer to stay away from them.
So that leaves all kinds of other stuff, mine like cat toys, little balls with
bells,
catnip stuffed mice, dog chew toys that are not plastic etc.
The baby section has small hard plastic rattles, teething
rings and things that
are easy for little hands to hold, these are usually bright and fun for the rats.
I have been wanting to see what
my guys do with a plastic slinky but I cant
find mine.
Homemade is also good. I have some peices of wood cut thinly and about two
inches in diameter that my husband cut from branches. He can make tons of
them in little time. Drill holes in them and string them up with leather strips
and big wooden beads and they make nice chewy climby things. You can hang
them up and also let the rats drag them around.
Toilet paper, paper towel and wrapping paper rolls make forever entertainment
for the chewers. So do cardboard boxes.
Shelving
Again hit the dollar store, they have little plastic shelves for lockers and the
like that can be snapped together in no time and are easy to clean. You can
leave them freestanding if they are short or attach them with zipties if the
are tall. The dollar store also sometimes has standing stack together baskets
that work great.
I have also found small metal shelves there for bathroom counter and they
work great as well.
At the hardware store in the lighting department they have this stuff called
egg crate and you can snip it to the size that you want with some wire cutters.
Food add ins, Treats and Snacks
Well the grocery, and the dollar store are your friends. We have a store
called big lots, I can find all kinds of natural cereals there for really cheap.
The dollar store usually has trail mixes of different kinds these are great add
ins for your food as long as you watch ingrediants.
Different pastas are cheap there too.
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