For our 28th foraging Friday I will be reviewing something a bit different. Usually I review toys meant specifically for foraging, however today I will be reviewing a more novelty item used as.a foraging toy. With that being said the foraging item I will be reviewing today is a mini piñata. You can find these tiny 5-6 inch piñatas in stores like Target or online and they often fit the theme of whatever holidays are occurring that month.
Now to use these piñatas as foraging toys is pretty simple - all you have to do is open the flap meant to insert candy, add in some yummy rat treats like cheerios or gerber puffs, optionally add in some tissues or crinkled paper to add more of a challenge, then close the flap and hang it up inside the cage. After that your rats should be able to sniff out the flap pretty quickly, then open it up and get the treats inside. Once they've emptied out the treats the piñata acts as a chew toy, and since its made of cardboard and crinkled paper they will enjoy chewing it up. My rats seemed to enjoy chewing them so much that they even started chewing up the piñatas before finishing the treats, something they haven't done with most of their other destructible foraging toys. I really like that these piñatas are so easy to use, and its nice to give my rats a destructible foraging toy for once. The only 2 downsides I have with these piñatas are that they can be a bit pricey (if you wait until after a holiday they will sometimes go on sale, or alternatively you can find some of them cheaper online), and the fact that some of these piñatas are a poor shape for the rats to remove the treats from. In my case I had a carrot piñata and a rabbit piñata and while the rats could use the rabbit piñata just fine, the carrot was so long that any treats fell to the bottom and out of reach. I think I could have prevented this by adding more crinkled paper to boost up the treats, or by hanging it sideways, but I ended up cutting a slightly larger access flap and that also did the job just fine. Overall these miniature piñatas are super cute and a lot of fun for the rats to destroy and forage with. My rats ended up destroying the first 2 but I plan on stocking up when they go on sale at my local Kroger/Target/Dollar Tree! Link to an example mini piñata from amazon: https://amzn.to/2YBC2jR ​​Link to an example mini piñata from Target: https://www.target.com/s/mini+pinata Video showcasing this foraging toy:
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For our 27th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Nature's Instinct Barrel of Fun foraging toy. Like many of my rat's foraging toys, this one is originally made for birds, but also works as a great rat foraging toy. To use this toy is fairly simple - when you first get the toy it will have some leather tied below, and after untying this and removing it you can just hang up the toy with the large metal clip at the top. After that you just need to open the drawer, add in some treats or other rat food, then close the drawer and gently twist it.
In order for the rats to open the drawer they have to twist open the drawer and pull it out. This is compounded by the fact that the toy is hanging freely from the chain, so the rats first have to hold it steady enough to open the drawer and access the treats inside. One nice thing about this toy is that you can change the difficulty levels. If you only slightly twist the drawer then the rats just need to gently nudge it in the right direction before they can pull the drawer out. On the other hand if you fully twist the drawer then the rats will need to actually untwist it fully before they can pull out the drawer. This ability to change the difficulty is really nice because it means that even inexperienced foraging rats can enjoy this toy, and you can gradually work up to twisting it more and more to provide a greater challenge. As for cleaning and refilling this toy that is all pretty easy. Cleaning it can be done with soap and water, and since this toy is fully acrylic and opens fully you don't have to worry about it not drying. Refill wise you just have to slide open the drawer, add the treats, and close it, and that only takes a few seconds. Overall this is a fun and challenging foraging toy for rats and I'm happy to finally be using it again. This is one of the first foraging toys I ever bought for my rats but I forgot about it for a long while, and I'm glad to see this group is enjoying it as much as my past groups did. Link to this foraging toy: ​https://amzn.to/3aHMmvx Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 26th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Kaytee Toss & Learn Carrot Game. This foraging toy is one of the rare small animal based foraging toys that I have for my rats, and its use is fairly similar to many other small animal foraging toys. To use this foraging toy you just attach the toy to your cage corner, remove the 3 carrot chews, place a few small treats into the holes, and then place the carrot chews back on top of the treats. You also have a large hole in the middle of the toy which can be filled with treats or normal food.
As far as use goes this toy is super simple. The rats just have to pick up or use their paws to push out the carrot chews to access the treats below. And of course any food placed in the large hole out front can be readily eaten without any work. Once the treats have been eaten the rats can also chew up the carrot chews, or even chew the treat holder itself. Refill wise this toy is a bit of a mixed bag. Adding treats is pretty easy, since you just have to place a few small treats in each hole and cover them with one of the carrot chews. But because the holes are small and shallow you can't place many treats inside, which does somewhat limit its use as a foraging toy. As for cleaning this toy is also a bit mixed. On one hand its made of wood, and so any cleaning is going to be difficult. This is compounded by the fact that the toy has metal rods on each side which allow it to be connected to the cage. On the other hand because this toy is wood, it is meant to be chewed up, and due to its small size and fairly low price this kind of dispensableness isn't a huge downside. This is one of those toys that I'll put up for my rats from time to time, and once it gets too chewed I don't mind getting rid of the remaining scraps. Overall this is a fun and simple foraging toy for rats, and a very cute addition to their cage. Its not an incredible foraging toy and its really more of a chew toy than anything else, but my rats seem to enjoy chewing it on occasion and they always enjoy finding treats in the holes so it serves its intended purpose pretty well. ​Foraging toy link: https://amzn.to/3kItQrr Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 25th foraging Friday I will be reviewing 2 similar (well, kinda similar) foraging toys. The first is the knot nibbler, a wooden foraging toy consisting of several wooden pegs attached together by smaller sticks to form a star shape. In the center of this "star" lies either a wooden bead or a almond nut. Both are fine for rats to chew up, but since the almond is actually edible it can act as more of an incentive for the rats to quickly chew up the toy. The second toy is the lifesaver bird toy and this consists of a wooden peg with several wooden rings on it. The rats can push the rings back and forth or just chew them up at their leisure.
Both these foraging toys are quite simple in their use, but both serve their purpose pretty well. The knot nibbler is a bit more like a typical foraging toy, either including a nut for the rats to try and obtain by chewing up the toy or (in the case of it having a wooden bead) by being able to be loaded up with treats to encourage them to push it around. At the same time the knot nibbler is also great for chewing, and even rats that are less chewing inclined like my girls can get some enrichment out of gradually gnawing on it over time. The lifesaver bird toy on the other hand is pretty much only chewing based, although of course the rats can also move around the rings if they so wish. Both toys have seen fairly regular use from my rats, although unlike most foraging toys they don't tend to sit down and focus on them for minutes on end, instead choosing to gnaw or push them around for a few seconds from time to time. The main downside to these toys is really just the colored wood. While it isn't dangerous to rats the dye used to color the wood will bleed out if the wood gets wet. And since rats are notorious for marking their toys this will inevitably happen. Even so this isn't a major problem for the most part, and its more something you just want to be aware of so you don't find yourself wondering where the colors are coming from (especially with the red, which can look unfortunately close to blood!) Overall both these foraging toys are fun and cute, and they work well as either in-cage toys or free-range toys. Neither is complex by far, and only the knot nibbler can really be considered a foraging toy in the traditional sense, but both toys suit their purpose of encouraging chewing and interaction quite well. Link to the knot nibbler: https://amzn.to/2ETqLUU Link to the lifesaver bird toy: https://amzn.to/3iitdTn
Video showcasing these foraging toys: |
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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