What are the best homemade toys for rats?
However, aside from vets’ bills, food, cages, bedding etc. Toys can be another expense investment if you buy them ready from a pet store. Toys for rats don’t need to cost a lot of money. You can completely make them by your own with just a bit of ingenuity. There are many materials available around your house that you can use to homemade toys for rats.
#1 The castle
We all know that rats love to explore, they also love to hide themselves in the shelter place. They will be very happy if they have multi-roomed castle to explore. You just need to find some cardboard boxes of different sizes such as shoe boxes or any box you get at the store. Placing these boxes next to or on the top of each other. Using strong tape such as packing tape to stick them secure the boxes in place.
However, before secure the boxes, you have to make holes on the boxes to allow the rats can get in and out and move between the different rooms. This castle also can be a favorite place of rats for collecting their treats.
#2 Digging boxes
Rats love burrowing. However, some rat cages have flat floors so there is no room for them to dig into their substrate. Or if you use fleece liners as bedding, they don’t get the chance to so. This is why you should make a digging box for their playtime allow them to do their natural digging and burrowing behaviors.
Finding for a plastic storage box, fill this box with a combination of substrate that safe for rats, shredded paper and cardboard, and old paper bags. I have filled my digging box with coconut mulch, I have made a hole to fit a piece of drainpipe through, planted a few edible plants like mint, coriander and nasturtiums. The rats will dig down to the depths, pulling up the plants and eat it.
#3 The tunnel maze
It is an excellent toy for time out the cage by making a DIY tube maze. There are lots of different materials you can use in a maze such as Long cardboard boxes, fabric tubes, drainpipe, etc,
There are two things you have to remember are that the material you choose must be safe for the rats and it also should large enough for a rat to move down comfortably.