For our 41st foraging Friday I will be reviewing the X-Small Mini Kong. Like a lot of my rats foraging toys, this one is technically made for dogs, but it works just as well for rats. To use this toy is very simple - all you have to do is stuff the king with small dry treats and appropriate liquid treats (nothing too sticky like peanut butter, but plain yogurt or baby food works well). As for how the rats use this toy they basically use it the same way as dogs. They will roll it around with their paws or nose and eat any treats that fall out. you can make this game easier or harder depending on how much food you put in the long and what consistency it is - small bits of dry food will take more batting around to come out and liquid treats will encourage them to lick around the inside. This is a great way to get rats new to foraging interested in continuing to interact with the foraging toy. Cleaning wise the this toy is super easy to clean since all it requires is a soak in hot soapy water. Once its done you want to dry the outside and then allow the inside to air dry before its next use. If you are only using dry treats in it you can go longer between full cleanings, just emptying out the crumbs before refilling it. Overall I was very happy with this foraging toy since my rats seem to really enjoy playing with it. I was initially worried that they would try and chew it due to it being a hard rubbery material, but it seems like its hard enough to dissuade most chewing and so my rats have only taken a few nibbles of it before giving up and sticking to pushing it around with their paws and nose as intended. I still wouldn't recommend leaving this in the cage since I could see rats eventually chewing it to pieces, but it makes a great foraging toy for the free-range area and is a good way to keep your rats happy and occupied while playing outside their cage. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/2OGn5LI ​
Video showcasing this foraging toy:
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For our 45th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Transparent Hanging Bird Feeder JW Pet Activitoys HOL-ee Roller. Like a lot of my rats foraging toys, this one is technically made for parrots, but it works just as well for rats. To use this toy is very simple - all you have to do is push some larger treats like fruit slices through the holes, then hang it up in your rats cage.
As for how the rats can use this toy they will have to use their arms and snoot to wrestle out the treats inside. Alternatively they may just chew off pieces of the treats, which is what my rats tend to do (since the rubber is so tough that just pulling a full piece out isn't easy). They may also chew on the toy some, since its made of hard rubber, however its very durable and can take a fair bit of chewing before they will break it, and so my rats usually give up chewing and just go for grabbing and biting the items inside instead. Cleaning wise the this toy is easy to clean - all you have to do is soak it in hot water, then dry it thoroughly. Its comprised of one piece with only the chain being removable, so I'd recommend removing the chain before cleaning it to prevent rusting. Otherwise it's very easy to clean and since its so holey you can even let it air dry. Overall I am very happy with this foraging toy and find it to be a great alternative for the acrylic hanging ball bird foraging toy. Even though it's made of hard rubber and can technically be chewed, it's durable enough that my rats haven't been able to chew through it and continue to use it as they would the acrylic hanging ball. Its not ideal for smaller treats, but works great for the larger fruit and veggie treats its made for and so its a great way to promote each rat getting their share and preventing any stashing of fresh foods. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/3tGyKZP
Video showcasing this foraging toy:For our 44th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Alfie Pet Carey Interactive Treats Puzzle Toy. This is a foraging toy is primarily made for cats and dogs, but it works just as well for rats. To fill this toy is pretty simple - you just turn the red piece so that it isn't covering any of the holes, then lift the yellow covers up, and place treats into the cups underneath. Then to make it foraging-ready you have 3 options - you can either put it on level 1, which requires you to remove the yellow covers and just have on the red piece. Or you can put it on level 2, which requires you to have the yellow covers on but the red piece off. And finally you can have it on level 3, which requires you to cover the treat-filled holes with the yellow covers and then to slide the red piece right over each yellow cover (this is the hardest difficulty). As far as the rats using this toy goes there are 3 different levels to play with this toy. If you only have the red pieces covering each treat-filled hole, then all they have to do is push aside the red pieces so they can get to the treats underneath. Alternatively if you are using the 2nd level of covering the holes with the yellow covers alone then the rats will need to use their nose and paws to lift them up in order to get to the treats underneath. You may need to help them learn to do this at first, but once they master it they will really enjoy opening up each cover. Finally if you use the 3rd difficulty level then the rats will need to push aside the red piece and then lift up the yellow cover before being able to get to the tasty treats below! This level will likely need some help from you to learn at first, but if you have practiced the previous 2 levels then your rats should pick it up pretty quickly. Cleaning wise this toy is fully made of plastic so its quick and easy to just wipe it down and clean whenever crumbs are left from the treats you use. I haven't yet tried to use any soft treats of liquid treats in this foraging toy, however I should be just as easy to clean. Overall this is a fun and challenging foraging toy that is a great way to teach your rats that they may need to sometimes do multiple behaviors before they get to their treats. Its leveling system is unique in that it builds on itself and includes different actions, which is something a lot of foraging toys lack. All in all I found this to be an amazing foraging toy for my rats and it has quickly becoming one of their (and my) favorites! Link to this foraging toy: https://www.amazon.com/Alfie-Pet-Petoga-Couture-Interactive/dp/B07CMWYLHB/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 Video showcasing this foraging toy:For today’s foraging Friday I will be reviewing February's ratty box! Thanks so much to Ratty Box for sending me their February box - its full of awesome treats and items and my rats adore everything in it! Now if you haven't seen my previous ratty box reviews its basically a rat subscription service where on the 10th of each month they send you a box filled with 5-6 items for your rats. These include some treats, some activity items or foraging items, a comfort item, and a large special item. For February's ratty box we got 5 awesome items, with the 1st one being the adorable Clownfish hide. This awesome hide is surprisingly large and can easily fit several rats at once! It has a comfortable pillow that my rats seem to really enjoy chilling on (and wrestling on!), and all my rats took to it super quickly. As a bonus its easy to wash the pillow, which is a huge advantage over other hides where you need to wash the entire thing (which would eventually be necessary wit this hide due to rats marking, but the majority of their marking will be on the cushion which makes being able to clean it very convenient.) The next item in the box is a chew toy, which in this case is a ring made up of bendable wooden sticks with a wooden hook that allows you to hang it on the cage bars. My rats are crazy about this and tried to steal it to stash and chew as soon as they saw it, and since then they managed to chew apart the entire ring in under a week! The next item in this months ratty box is 3 more chews. These chews are made of a tissue paper substance woven into large braids which can be scattered about the rats cage. The rats can then seek these out, carry them around, chew them up, rip off pieces to next with, and so forth. My rats in particular took turns carrying them around the cage proudly before they ripped them up and nested with them - regardless they seemed to really enjoy interacting with them and especially my 2 hoarding obsessed rats Donut and Sugar had a blast playing with them! Next up we have the treat included in this months ratty box and this time the treat is a tasty dates coated in oat flour. My rats absolutely adored these even more than they usually enjoy dates and with their small size these treats made the perfect filler for some of my foraging toys. So far my 4 rats have eaten nearly half the bag over the course of just over a week and each time I bring them out they get so excited to have some! Finally the last item in February's ratty box was a large flat-style hammock. This hammock is huge and can fit multiple rats wit ease, and the straps make it easy to hang this hammock from the cage. The hammock itself is super soft on the side the rats will sleep on and my girl Donut in particular has taken to sleeping curled in a ball on it quite often! Overall this months ratty box was awesome and my rats are thoroughly enjoying all the fun items and yummy treats! Thank you again to ratty box for letting me review the February's box - I had a blast and my rats are loving it! If you would like to check out ratty box you can do so by going to their Facebook page or website which I will link right below this: Ratty Box website (enter the code BRUX for 10% off your first subscription): https://www.therattybox.com/ Ratty Box facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheRattyBox/ Video Showcasing February's Ratty Box: |
AboutHey there! Here you will find tips and tricks on rat care and training, along with information not found elsewhere on this site. If you have questions or suggestions for me, feel free to contact me through the contact page. Archives
October 2021
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