RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:10 am

So we just got a martins R-695, and one of the issues we've having (other than cleaning it) is that there are so many levels with lots of space.

Our rats just drag everything where they want it... which is basically, on the very bottom of the cage.

We'll arrange everything nicely, and by the next morning everything is either dragged down to the bottom, and the big igloo is even jammed in the hole at the stairway (which is won't fit down).

Is there some way that we can secure this stuff so the rats can't move it? Or should we just let them have their plain boring cage with nothing on any of the top levels.

Advice please!

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Lise...

& Molly, Nora, and Tevy

Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:11 am

I'm talking mainly about igloos, and other houses such as cardboard boxes, coffee cans, etc.

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Lise...

& Molly, Nora, and Tevy

Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:22 am

Well, there's something to be said for letting them put it where they want it, but I feel your pain. My girls' veggie dish is always knocked down by morning. I use safety pins to attach cardboard houses to the bars. I used to attach my girls' igloo with a piece of cloth that wrapped around one of the projections on top of the igloo and then was tied behind the bars. If you do it right, you don't have to unwrap the cloth tie when you remove the igloo and clean the cage. As for coffee cans, I recommend magnets from the home store. Get a nice, big one and they won't be able to budge the can (I used to use magnets for a litter box that had a metal spot, and that worked great).

Good luck

.

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Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:33 am

If I need to secure things (usually only the litter tray and food bowls) I've used twists of garden wire or cableties. The bowls were the worst, and I ended up swapping to bird bowls that come with hooks to fix them to the side of the cage. They shift their igloo a little, but very rarely to an unusuable position.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:41 am

	LittleWillow wrote:
	They shift their igloo a little, but very rarely to an unusuable position.

LOL I so wish I had a camera right now to show you this. The medium sized igloo is on the bottom of the cage flipped right upside down. The large igloo is jammed down onto the middle staircase tilted basically onto its side. I don't know what those guys are thinking, they make it so they don't even have any houses... and then they just curl up on the bars in the corners!

Anyhow, thanks for the ideas guys, keep them coming.

(I LOVE the magnet idea for the coffee cans, as those used to be one of their favorite sleeping spots in teh old cage.)

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Lise...

& Molly, Nora, and Tevy

Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:44 am

I have the same problem. I have a comf-E-cube, hanging near the top, and an igloo and rock in the bottom. If I try to put a cardboard box onto a shelf, it just gets knocked down. A few times I have used safty pins to attach it, but because of how I positioned the doors, it is awkward especially since I have to replace all of there boxes every few days.

How do other people attach boxes and stuff?

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Rosie

* * *

I miss you Tut, Goldy, and Raoul Angel rat

Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:46 am

We use twisty ties to secure everything, like the hanging tubes and a rawhide to the side of the cage..places where they cant chew on the twisty ties but they are there to hold things in place. Thank god for bags of bread! lol

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Megan and the Hyper Hoppers. Blueberry and Butterfly, Naked Evee, and Chii.

Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:55 am

Zip-ties!! Mr. Green

I use zip ties for anything I want to stay in place in the cages - except hammocks, which are secured by safety pins. wink

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Shanna
~ Serendipity Rodentry ~

Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:59 am

Safety pins.

I drill holes in anything plastic and secure it to the pars with safety pins, same with anything wooden or cardboard.

For keeping crock-type bowls in place, I have some 4-5 pound rocks I took from the backyard and cleaned really well to place around the outside of them so they can't scoot them around or knock them over.

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--Brittany

"He who breaks a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom."

Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:32 am

Hmmm okay. And no one has ever had an incident with a safety pin popping open? I imagine you use some heavy duty type safety pins.

Also, for the twist tie method mentioned. I'm a little hesitant to do that, because that is like a very fine piece of wire inside the paper stuff, and I imagine that my girls who are chewers could chew right through it? (And possibly swallow small pieces of wire?)

Brittany, do you have any pictures of something plastic that you've drilled holes in and attached wtih safety pins, so I can see how you do it?

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Lise...

& Molly, Nora, and Tevy

Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:15 pm

The twisty tie chewing is a possibility I suppose. My girls chew EVERYTHING. A hammock lasts about...3 hours before they have chewed it to shreds to pack into their igloo. A stuffed bed lasted SURPRISINGLY three days before the stuffing had been removed, the fabric taken apart, and stuff all through their home. Cloth hanging tubes? Dont make me laugh. They just love to destroy things. But theyve never really bothered my hanging objects. Then again, when I hang things, I twist the ties on the outside of the cage, so that there is only one tight small loop of the metal inside holding the thing in place. Also Im tieing things like hard tubes up, and tieing raw hide braided loops to the cage, and I stratagetically place the ties in places behind the objects where they would have to work to A. find a good position to get in to touch them, and B. just wont simply stumble across them while doing their normal daily stuff. Ive never had any problems. We also used twine..which looked neat- but never lasted a day. We did the safety pins..and they destroyed the fabric around the pins so that when I came back to the cage, there were just..four pins hanging from the top of the cage XD Oh my girls are the queens of destruto.

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Megan and the Hyper Hoppers. Blueberry and Butterfly, Naked Evee, and Chii.

Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:39 pm

we use zip ties for every thing as well! even for putting our RUUD together... makes it easier for taking the front panel off for cleaning.

lol and if a R695 is hard to clean... the ruud is just dreadful...

all the seasons but winder I drag it out and scrub and hose it down... all the other ones... I just sopt clean... and change litter and bedding... *sigh* but it's worth the hastle for out furchillin

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Merry and The Sunflower Thieves!

Lyric Bean, Emma Kaboodle, and Harley Quinn the rex head.

To all those who have crossed the bridge before us...
Piper Monkey
Princess Zelda "It's beautiful here!, you should see me now, I'm perfect."

Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:40 pm

I use twisty ties for everything. My hubby collects toys so I take all of the twisty ties from those and use them to secure everything in Eugene's cage. Good thing about them is that they are reusable and come off easy when it is time to clean the cage. Too, they can be cut down to fit anything and the huge ones are good for water bottles and the like.

Too, if your babies are bad about blocking up the stairways, make sure you have water bottles on atleast your top and bottom levels to make sure that even if your ratties block up your their stairs they will still be able to get to their water.

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Lydelia and the Critters
... and now they are five Mr. Green

Kitties: Miss Kitty, Catbot
Ratties: Eugenuis, Ralph and Elliott
RIP Oliver -- We love you and we'll miss you!!! Cry

Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:31 am

Zip ties and safety pins! (I've never had one pop open yet...just standard silver ones).

Mostly Ilet them re-arrange stuff though. I've given up

Thu Dec 22, 2005 9:40 am

If you're worried about the fine wire in twist ties, then you can do what I do - little snips of PVC coated garden wire - a small roll is cheap enough, and is plenty for securing lots of things. The wire is thicker and less easy to chew through, and the coating is a little more resistant than the papery cover on twist ties that come with sandwich/freezer bags. I use it to attach both shelves to cage sides, as well as attaching items firmly, and it's not really been chewed at all.

I've used safety pins before, and like others have said, they've not popped open - I worry about them doing so at first, but even fat boy butts on hammocks held up by them haven't gone anywhere.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:57 pm

Yes, I have not had a single safety pin pop open - and I do tend to use different sizes for different things.

My hammocks and baskets are hung with safety pins, and everything else is attached with zip-ties. I personally love the zip ties, and as said above, they are also handy for putting cages together. I am ordering two R-695's from Martin's in a month or so, and will be putting them together with the zip ties instead of the C-rings. They are just so much easier to work with, and much easier to remove if you need to break down the cage at any time. wink

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Shanna
~ Serendipity Rodentry ~

Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:56 pm

LittleWillow wrote:

If you're worried about the fine wire in twist ties, then you can do what I do - little snips of PVC coated garden wire - a small roll is cheap enough, and is plenty for securing lots of things. The wire is thicker and less easy to chew through, and the coating is a little more resistant than the papery cover on twist ties that come with sandwich/freezer bags. I use it to attach both shelves to cage sides, as well as attaching items firmly, and it's not really been chewed at all.

I've used safety pins before, and like others have said, they've not popped open - I worry about them doing so at first, but even fat boy butts on hammocks held up by them haven't gone anywhere.

Hmm, that sounds like a good idea! I might actually even look into that for my cage, it sounds sturdier and probably more appealing to the eyes to have all the same colored wireing. Hmmmmmmmm...

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Megan and the Hyper Hoppers. Blueberry and Butterfly, Naked Evee, and Chii.