Enrichment Ideas

[ryelle]

I am totally getting in to animal enrichment at the minute, and thought it might be good to start a post that contains everyones enrichment ideas that they use for their rats. Might give somebody some inspiration and a good thing to swap ideas about

So, what do you do or give your rats for enrichment and stimulation?

I posted before about the tray of stones i put in the cage that i fill with various dried treats for the rats to dig around in

I have grown a tray of 'Cat Grass' in my mums miniature greenhouse for the rats. It is pesticide free and with it being grown indoors there is no chances that cat's or other animals have pee'd on it. Its not kept in the cage all the time, just for like 5 minutes or so, so they don't gorge on grass, but they do also like to have a dig around in the compost (Patrick has almost killed many of my plants whilst trying to dig them up :roll: )

They also have a bone (i believe it is a cow 'knuckle'?) which they chew like crazy - amazing for the teeths!

 

[Marylou Mader]

Those are wonderful ideas thanks...

 

[Alicemcmallis]

Great ideas! I wrap treats in little pieces of paper or cardboard for the rats to tear apart/dig out. Or "hide" the treats around their cage in various locations for them to find.

There are also these cool cat balls that have slots in them - I put some smallish treats in there like mixed cereals and they roll them around to get the food out.

 

[ZoeHale]

My girls loved it when I put treats inside those plastic easter eggs.
They figured out really fast what's in them and that THEY WANT IT.

 

[mamarat]

Those are all great ideas. I like the Cat grass, must try that.

 

[jorats]

I've done the cat grass before, it was perfect! The rats made a huge mess but they sure had fun.
As for stimulating... I will add pieces of napkins slightly stuck in the bars of the cage or just beyond which then makes the rats work for it. Or give them a big newspaper page, the rats then must figure out how to break it up in order to move it up and down the cage.

 

[Alicemcmallis]

I will add pieces of napkins slightly stuck in the bars of the cage or just beyond which then makes the rats work for it.

Also entertaining for them are envelopes... just put your rack of bills to pay right next to the cage - actually doesn't even have to be really close, can be up to a foot away - and they manage to reach them, pull them into the cage and destroy them.

Oh! Or a roll of paper towels left on top of the cage! They LOVE to somehow pull every single paper towel from an almost full roll into the cage and again, destroy them all. You'd need more than one roll for more than 2 rats I guess.

Ask me how I know.

 

[sarunia]

Is there a particular kind of rawhide/dog bone to give them? Slava hasn't taken the bait with the basket... and he's taken to my research books (!!!)

 

[Moon]

I'd only give sterilized bones to rats... anything else will be flavoured or deep fried.