Rats are fossorial animals. In the wild, they dig and live underground. They forage for their food and water, burning their mental/physical energy doing these tasks. As we have domesticated rats, they no longer need to search for their food or dig burrows. Their instincts however are still present and rat owners must provide cage enrichment to satisfy their needs as an animal, as well as provide at least an inch of accessible bedding to do their business in and dig around in. Rats also need to be free roamed for an hour a day and their free roam space should have other types of enrichment as well, typically anything that doesn’t fit in the cage or needs supervision when playing with.
Enrichment is necessary as rats are very intelligent and can get bored easily. When rats are bored they will be destructive, chew at the bars, and be more likely to escape. Not satisfying a rat’s need for enrichment may lead to behavioral issues such as aggression to rats and/or humans, depression, and poor social behavior such as timidity. From the article by Ishiwari et al., “rats housed in the enriched environment were able to filter out irrelevant stimuli more effectively and thereby regulate their behavior more efficiently than standard-housing rats.” In another article by K Landreth et al., “environmental enrichment is a viable treatment for cognitive deficits in rodent tests”.
Providing them with enrichment does not have to be expensive! Dollar tree has lots of enrichment items. Baskets with shredded paper, toilet paper rolls hung up with the toilet paper, paper bags, boxes, buckets of treats hung with pipe cleaners, dog toy ropes for climbing, or toilet paper rolls cut and stuffed with treats are excellent DIY toys. Tissue paper and newspaper (check that it’s made with vegetable dye) can be crinkled up and rats will enjoy nesting with it. Be sure to replace if it ever looks wet. Rats enjoy climbing so provide some ropes for them to develop a sense of balance and for enrichment! Make sure it’s made of natural materials as they like to chew them too. I get the dog rope toys from Dollar Tree they are made with cotton- just zip tie them together and across the cage! Zip ties and pipe cleaners are available at Dollar Tree and are amazing at fixing things like baskets and ropes to the cage. You can also DIY bridges or braid cotton/jute ropes. Another good climbing tool is the scarf organizers off Amazon or Ikea. Older rats may need fall breakers underneath but providing ropes will help them get their exercise and enrichment in. More expensive enrichment can be bird foraging items or small animal puzzles. Rats LOVE to dig so provide a dig box using either coco soil or shredded paper. Cut out boxes to make fun houses for them to explore during free roam! You can thrift baskets, doll houses, and other plastic toys from a thrift store for play items in and around the cage. Fleece patterns are often on sale or cheap in bulk at crafting stores, you can line baskets with fleece or sew your own hammocks from them.
Scatter-feed their food, and do not use food bowls. This will help stimulate their foraging instincts and also prevent them from becoming overweight. Hide treats in their dig boxes and in toilet paper rolls.
Rats teeth are always growing. Providing items for them to chew is not only enrichment, but necessary to the health of your rats to ensure their incisors do not grow into their skull. While rats with properly aligned teeth can wear down their teeth down naturally by bruxing, some rats with unaligned teeth or rats who don’t brux often, may appreciate the chews to assist them in filing. Depending on the severity they may need to go to a vet to have them clipped, I recommend checking every rat’s teeth at least once a week. Provide shelled nuts, cooked meat bones, pumice stones, lava ledges, or rat-safe wood for them to wear their teeth down. There are bird ledges on amazon that can be bought in bulk. Wood from fruit trees can be scattered or created into enrichment toys such as apple tree sticks or grape vines. Check online if the type of wood is safe for rats before introducing any into the cage.
Cages should be filled with enrichment and climbing opportunities to fill up any empty space.
We make and sell enrichment toys that are built for foraging and chewing. We provide them in the cages of rats that get adopted to ensure proper brain and social development by time of adoption. They are made with non-toxic wood, toilet paper stuffers, shelled nuts and rattan balls. They are for sale with rats or with international shipping! Check out MoomooChews on Etsy💗
Sources
K Landreth, M Burgess, L Watson, et al. Handling prevents and reverses cognitive deficits induced by sub-chronic phencyclidine in a model for schizophrenia in rats. Physiology & Behavior, 263 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114117.
Ishiwari, K., King, C.P., Martin, C.D. et al. Environmental enrichment promotes adaptive responding during tests of behavioral regulation in male heterogeneous stock rats. Sci Rep 14, 4182 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53943-y
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