How To Choose Rat Toys

Hi, my name's Marie. I'm the deputy manager of the Small Animal Department at Wood Green Animal Shelters and I'm going to tell you how to care for rats. I'm going to tell you how to choose rat toys.

First of all, make sure you've got a really nice big spacious rat house. The best thing is a size like this and this could quite easily house 2 to 3 rats. Really, the bigger you can afford, the better for rats as they are very intelligent and they love to be active, so you want a space where you can really fill it with toys and keep them interested.

So when considering toys, you need to be able to provide them with a variation and you want plenty of areas where they can sleep and rest as well. As these three girls are showing you here, often, they love sleeping on hammocks. Hammocks are brilliant for rats and very often, you'll find a whole group of them will be snuggled up together, so it's a really great example.

But hammocks can easily be made yourself. You can use any old materials that you've got around the home and you can just stitch these on and use just little key ring hooks on the end here. These can be hung from the cage, then the rats will love snuggling in them.

An easier option of making hammocks is just to get another bit of material, cut that into a square, and then what you can do is just cut corners about that length and just tie them to the top of the cage. And that way, that will create another hammock from the top. You want to make sure that you've got at least 2 or 3 houses inside the accommodation as sometimes, some of the rats from the group might want to go and sleep separately or maybe choose one of their friends rather than all huddling together.

So, make sure they've got the option. If there are new pairs of rats, sometimes, only providing them with one house can cause fights, so make sure you have a couple of options. Right ideas are these ones that can hang from the ceiling or these are often available in most pet shops and rescue shelters.

These are really easy to clean. You can use a pet disinfectant just to spray them down and wash them down every week when you clean their toys, and they can just be clipped back together. You can add in here soft paper bedding for them to sleep on or you can place some old towels or even some old socks and just pop in there and the rats will love curling up in them.

Rat toys don't have to be expensive. They are really easy to even make or find yourself. Many objects around the house are fine for rats.

A really good example here is a garden hanging basket especially a flat one like this. These can just be tied to the side of the cage and then you can get some old towels and just place them in there, and the rats would love snuggling up. Don't be afraid to put them up quite high as rats are really good at balancing and climbing at different heights, so give them a challenge and they're going to have a lot more fun.

You could also use children's chairs and stools like this and that will create a bit more level in the accommodation, and a really good idea is a wooden wine rack. These can be spread out and they make a really really cool climbing frame or ladder in the accommodation. The one we've got in here has been painted pink and that is with a wood preservative.

When you are choosing them to protect the wood, make sure you choose a children and pet friendly one. A lot of pet stores and DIY shops do sell these and they do state that, so make sure you have checked that first. So, that's how to choose rat toys. .