For our 19th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Trixie Pet Products Mover Toy. Like many of my rats foraging toys this toy is intended for dogs, but works just as well for rats. The way this toy works is by combining a bunch of different foraging activities into one. For example you can put treats in the drawers, and to get them out the rats either have to push the lever forwards or pull on the string. You can also hide treats under each of the blue squares, which the rats need to push aside to get to the treats. Finally, you can place the two mini "towers" over any of the indented holes (with treats inside), and to get to the treat your rats must push the pieces off the board to get underneath. You can even place these "towers" next to the blue squares, preventing the rats from moving the squares aside until they knock off the tower.
With all these activities this dog toy makes a fun foraging challenge for rats. While pushing the squares aside or knocking off the towers should be pretty intuitive to them, working out how to remove the drawers or working out the right sequence of actions when the tower is places in between the squares is more of a challenge. My rats took to this toy fairly readily, and were very excited to figure out just how the drawers worked. They needed a bit of help fully extending one of the drawers, but after that they picked it up pretty quickly. Cleaning and refill wise this toy is easy to maintain. To refill it you simple need to place treats into the indentations, then cover them (or in the case of the drawers push them in). And to clean it you can simply remove the 2 tower pieces, then wipe everything down and let it air dry. Overall this toy is a lot of fun for rats, and easy to maintain on our part. Like most dog toys its best used during free-range under supervision, as the rats could chew up the towers or chew off the drawer string if left unsupervised. Unlike most floor foraging toys though it offers a lot more variety to the foraging activities, making it fun to reuse in a way that simpler toys can't match. Link to this foraging toy (blue): https://amzn.to/2VjzIvY Link to this foraging toy (pink): https://amzn.to/31ia9iY
Video showcasing this foraging toy:
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For our 18th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Trixie Pet Product Snack Board. This fun foraging toy is quite simple in concept, with the circular pan containing several holes where treats can be placed, along with a lid piece to cover each hole. In order to get to the treats inside your rats must pull off the lids, exposing the treats underneath and allowing them to eat them.
As far as floor foraging toys goes, this toy is one of the simplest ones out there. This makes it great for introducing new rats to foraging, but a bit simple for more experienced foraging rats. You can somewhat increase the difficulty by adding in some crinkled paper or tissues to each hole and sprinkling only small treats inside so that your rat must dig for them even after taking off the lid, but otherwise what you see is what you get and its difficult to make this concept more than mildly challenging even for rats that are just beginning to forage. Quality wise the metal pan is a nice change when compared to similar foraging toys. The lids are made of hard plastic though, and while it won't hurt the rats to gnaw on them this can destroy the lids pretty quickly if given the chance. Because of this I recommend sticking to using this toy outside the cage during free-range (where you can supervise), as once the lids are gone its basically just a food dish. As for cleaning and refilling this toy is fairly easy to take care of. To clean it you just have to remove the lids, wash them, and wash the pan separately. And to refill them you again just have to remove the lids, fill the holes, and then replace the lids. This makes it an easy toy to get out and use within a few seconds, which is definitely a big plus especially considering that most rats will empty it out pretty quickly. Overall this foraging toy is both easy to maintain and fun for rats to forage with. Its not complex by any means, but its a good way to get rats started on foraging and even rats used to more complex foraging toys can benefit from some easier foraging once in a while. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/2ASnnb8 Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 17th foraging Friday I will be reviewing some simple bucket foraging toys (such as the Oxbow Foraging Pot). These toys are made up of a bucket hung up on a string or chain, with a plastic or wooden lid on top. Once you have placed food inside the bucket your rats then have to nudge it open using their nose or paws, after which they can remove the treats.
Now as far as foraging toys go, these ones are very simple to use. Not only do rats figure out how to nudge them open pretty quickly, but because of the way they are built they often tilt to one side, making it even easier for the rats to get inside. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because the toys are still fun and usable for rats, but it does mean that they don't pose much of a challenge. Because of this I like to use these more as normal food bowls than foraging toys - really I use most foraging toys this way, in order to encourage my rats to work for their food just a bit more than they otherwise would, but with these foraging toys in particular this is a nice way to encourage rats new to foraging or just rats unsure about foraging to start enjoying it. And once your rats get down the main idea you can increase the challenge some by adding in crinkled paper or tissues, or even by adding some clips to the top of the lid in order to make pushing it aside harder (I have yet to try this but I've seen people do it for birds and I bet it would work for rats as well!) As for cleaning and refill both of those come easily with these sorts of toys. All you have to do to open them is slide the lid upwards and because of this its easy to pour in more food or clean the inside of the buckets. Overall this is a simple but fun foraging toy that is especially good for rats new to foraging. Its not super complex, but its still enjoyable for rats and that combined with its easy refill and cleaning makes it a great way to add a bit of mental enrichment to the cage. Link to the Oxbow Foraging pot: https://amzn.to/30zy2lJ Link to the plastic version: https://amzn.to/3cUmuvT Link to a DIY version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHxx4H62aEI&list=PLGThSDBAdLELSQO1duyJWmwly0PR8TIq2&index=18&t=0s
Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 16th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Featherland Paradise Creative Foraging Systems 4 Corner Cage Mount. This foraging toy is originally meant for birds (although like many bird foraging toys it is also perfect for rats!), and it consists of 4 drawers on a spinning square mount. Each drawer opens in a different way, with 2 having lids that must be lifted up (one opens outwards, the other opens inward), a 3rd drawer having a lid that must be slid outwards, and the 4th drawer also slides but sideways in a diamond shape. This foraging toy mounts using a large acrylic screw on the bars, making it easy to attach and remove as need be.
In terms of use, this toy is pretty simple. Your rats have to open up the drawers to get access to the food inside. The challenge really comes in the different drawers though - rats don't have great vision, so they can't really tell the different drawer mechanisms apart. So if you rotate the drawers or if the rats rotate the drawers then they essentially reset the challenge with each drawer being an unknown that they must once again figure out how to open. This variability, both in how the drawers open and how the mount rotates, solves the main issue I had with a past drawer toy I reviewed which was that once open, the drawers don't close, removing a lot of the challenge. Even though this foraging toy's drawers also don't close just the fact that it contains so much variability means that it still poses a lot more challenge than the hanging drawer toy that I reviewed for Foraging Friday #14 ever could. Cleaning wise and refilling wise this toy is also great, as all you have to do is open the drawers for full access to refill and clean them. And unlike the previous drawer toy there is no way for water to get trapped behind the drawers, meaning you can rinse it without issue. Overall, this foraging toy is super fun for the rats, and easy maintenance for their humans. It can easily be attached or removed from the cage bars, and the drawers are easy to refill and clean. Its variability makes it quite the challenge for rats as well, and this combined with the visual challenge of not knowing which drawer opens which way will keep even advanced forager rats on their toes! Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/2ABnZl7 Video showcasing this foraging toy: |
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October 2021
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