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| Big TOOBES |
| Try asking at your local carpet centre for the empty cardboard rolls from the inside of the carpets. These are wide enough to accomodate the fattest rats!!!! |
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| Bush Wacker |
| Place some walnuts or brazil nuts (still in their shells!) where they can
find them. They will attempt to carry them back to the cage, you have to
bushwhack them (*pretend* to steal the nuts off them).
It's important to let them win, and stash the nuts. Later you retrieve the
stash, when they aren't thinking about it, and you have a fresh supply of
nuts for the game.
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| Dave |
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| Chase |
| Chase them gently round with your hands, the aim is to flip the rat over and give it a good "tummy tickling" before releasing them.
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| Karen |
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| Drainpipe Hideaway |
| An easy toy i found was to get sections of drain pipe - cheap, easy and efficient - line with tissue paper or a soft bedding material and it makes a nice cosy hidyhole!
The rats love it and its easily disposed of and easily replaced! |
| Sam Austin |
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| Feather fun |
| My rats love feather dusters, they go crazy with playfulness when i let them play with theirs its so cute |
| Terri |
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| FREE TOYS |
The free toys apply to things you throw out on a day to day basis.Rats will take great pleasure from normal things that we thrown away, these include:
Cereal boxes, cut down
Empty toilet rolls
Small empty boxes from household goods, i.e. tissue boxes
Empty drinks bottles, with one or both ends cut off, and filed smooth.
Other things can be used that some people may have lying around, such as:
Drain pipes
Small wooden boxes, smooth and splinter free, these make excellent sleeping quarters
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| Hammock |
To make a ratty hammock you will need
A piece of material 20cm x 20cm
4 Paper clips
How to make
Take the piece of material and stick the paper clips though each corner. Once that is done attach the four paper clips to the inside top of the cage, and there you go!!!
The ratty hammock is so easy to make and depending on the personality of your rat, they may take a look and ignore it, but more likely than not they will climb, play and hang from the underneath, our rats have been known to sleep in it!!!
Tip: Place a couple of your rats treats on top of the hammock to make them use it initially.
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| Hammock 2 |
| If you have any old woolen hats lying around attach wire or string to 4 opposite points (a square) and attach to the top of your cage similar to a hammock.
Tip: If you don't have any lying around take a trip to local charity shops, you should be able to get one and possibly several spares very cheaply!!!! |
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| Hammock 3 |
| Take half a coconut shell, drill three holes in it opposite eachother like a triangle. Then cut three pieces of string the same length and knot them at the end (make sure that the knot is bigger than the holes). Thread the strings through the holes and tie the ends to the top of the cage and hay presto!
It's best to hang the coconut shell just out of reach of your rats to make it more challenging. If your rat is suicidal like mine s/he'll dive off the second floor into it. Put a treat in there to start off with, so they've
got a reason to go in there.
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| Hammock 4 (Tubular) |
Old pant legs and shirt sleaves make wonderful tubular hammacks. A couple of pieces of string some scissors and viola, a cheap, easily replaceable, washable tubular hammack.
My three rats love them, I have 2 jean legs in their cage. |
| Sandra |
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| Mailbox |
| "I used to have this rat who would take treats from my hand. Then I started to give him paper "letters" from a rat sized mailbox that I had made him. I recently have a male rat who takes treats from hand too, so I made a mailbox and letters for him yesterday. I was going to put a small treat in each letter for him so he would like it. I made the letters from paper. I made 28 of them so he wouldn't run out quickly. I made the mailbox from cardboard and tape. Try it with your ratties! |
| Lauren |
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| Monster Maze |
| I made a maze for my rats! I just used four (you could use loads if you wanted) large boxes and punched holes in the sides. I then joined the boxes with used kithen roll tubes. My rats love running form box to box! To make it more interesting I put balls, hidden treats and cardboard pieces for additional fun.
WARNING-my rats were able to jump out of the smaller boxes so keep them under close supervision!!
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| Rachael |
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| Paper and String |
| Take a piece of paper and scrunch it into a ball, then tie a piece of string around the ball of paper, if you manage to get the ratties attention they will chase after the ball. |
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| Pea Fishing |
| Put some frozen peas into shallow luke-warm water and watch your ratties dive for the tasty treats!
Make sure the water isn't too deep as some ratties just dive in head first and water shouldn't get into their ears!! |
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| Rat pots |
| take a flower pot and fill it full of hay of paper shredding and they adventure in them. If your rat starts to eat the plastic though remove it as it can make them ill. |
| Jo |
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| Rattty kebabs |
| You can have things like pieces of carrot, banana, apple and even things like cooked potato and put a scewer through them to make a small hole and then thread them on to a piece of string to make a ratty kebab. But make sure you remove the string when they have finished so that they don't eat that aswell. |
| Jo |
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| Ratty ladder |
| Break lots of little branches about 10cm in length, depending on how long you want it depends how many twigs to use.
About 1cm in from each end of the twig drill a little hole, big enough to fit some wire through.
Then get 2 lengths of wire and thread all of the sticks onto the wire one each side.
Then attach the lengths of wire to the edge of the cage and their home or 2 things that you want connected together and hey presto a ratty ladder!
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| Ratty Pinata |
| Here is a great toy idea, it's cheap and easy. Wrap a treat in a small piece of paper and seal with masking tape, punch a hole in the top of it, put a piece of string through the hole. Make a few and hang them throughout the cage.
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| Ratty Tunnels |
| You can use toilet or kitchen roll tubes which they like to go through and you can cut them and push other tubes in making winding tunnels. |
| Jo |
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| The Box Games |
| Collect empty box's (cereal, dog biscuits,
cat biscuits etc) don't worry about size. Then when you have a fair
amount put treats in some of them and then just bung them in the cage.
Your ratties will love crawling in, out and over them. It's a real adventure park!
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| Les |
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| Toilet Tissue |
| Poking pieces of tissue paper partly into the cages where the rats can get it. Shove about 20 or so pieces in and then watch while they rush round collecting the bits to add to their beds! It keeps them occupied for a while.
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| Karen |
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| Toilet Tubes |
| Collect cardboard tubes out of the "toilet rolls", scrunch them up one end and fill them with various treats, and then scrunch up the other end. Don't put too many treats in as it makes it difficult to "seal" them. Give them to your rats and watch them determined to get to the treats, it works as a good "boredom buster"
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| Karen |
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| Treat Boxes |
| Fill a small box with your ratties favourite treats and close it up. Hide it somewhere in the cage and within several days you will find the box chewed to bits and all the treats eaten. This is a great boredom breaker and gives the ratties a chance to find their food!!! |
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| Treat Net |
1. Get a small piece of fabric-like mesh and cut it into a square.
2. Get some thin thread and weave/sew your way around the edge and leave some extra thread to hang onto when ratties try catch it. It will look like a small net. Rat Sized.
3. Put your rat's favorite treat in the net and pull it tight to make sure that the treat will not fall out when it is swung around.
4. Put the net into the cage and swing it around so that the rats will follow it through the air. Let the rats have the treat after a while. Be sure to take it out of the net first.
The rats will have fun following the net and fighting at who will get it when they manage to get a hold of it. |
| Lauren |
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| Tunnel Fun |
Socks make a warm bed or a fun tunnel that every house hold would have.
A pair of stockings with the very end of the feet cut makes 2 tunnels leading to the 1 exit for a fun game for 2 ratties. Also interesting for us to see who finds the way out first!!!
You just have to put 2 cardboard tubes at the feet to make entrances that the rats can find. |
| Megan |
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