New Addition - Rats

After not having a pet since 2003, my girlfriend and I had decided to get a pet rat.  So last Friday she goes out to PetSmart and gets one. Upon further research I find out that rats are best when in pairs or more. They are social critters and need at least one companion in life. Kind of like us humans, without someone else around we go crazy pretty much. At first I was not too thrilled of the idea of having them. Then I started to learn that rats are pretty easy to teach, from using a liter box or to do tricks.

Lazy and Sneezy

The basic of rat care are pretty simple. For the most part they will just take care of themselves. I didn't want to spend a fortune on toys for them, so I scratched my thinking cap. I ended up making some rat toys out of some very simple products from home. Take for instance.

Climbing Tube -
Materiel
1 Empty Pringles can
1 Long spare sock

Directions
Cut the bottom of the Pringles can off to open up the other end. Cut the sock at the toe end to where you have enough room to put the sock inside of the can, and have some extra room to pull the sock up and around the openings of the Pringles can. I did use four small dots of super glue to hold one end of the sock to the can.

I also made a hammock for them using a sock and some zip ties. I threw in a rock and a stick, with the store bought little house already in there. It made for a simple cage with all kinds of things to do.