This week we are taking a break from reviewing commercial foraging toys and instead making a special DIY halloween foraging toy. Everything used for this foraging toy can be found at the dollar tree or other general stores around halloween time. Materials: - Scissors - Treats/food - 3 Mini candy buckets - 2 clips (I'm using c-clips) - Tissue paper/crinkled paper/tissues - 4 pipe cleaners (2 purple & 2 orange) Step 1: Start by twisting together your 2 pipecleaners, creating a twisted purple and orange pipecleaner Step 2: Tie one side of the newly twisted pipecleaners to one of your clips. Twist the metal end back into the pipecleaner itself. Now thread on your 3 mini buckets, and finally tie the other end of your pipecleaner twist to another clip (again making sure to twist the sharp metal end into the pipcleaner itself). Step 3: Fill each mini bucket with some tissue paper/tissues/crinkled paper and a few treats/regular food. Step 4: Take your remaining 2 pipecleaners and cut them into 5-6 pieces. Take 3 of these pieces and use each one to tie one of the buckets onto the initial twisted pipecleaners Step 5: Finally, hang up your foraging toy in the rats cage and let them enjoy the spoils! Video Showcasing How to Make this Foraging Toy:
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For our 35th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Super Bird Creations SB965 Mini Seagrass Foraging Wall Bird Toy. Like many of my rat's foraging toys, this one is originally made for birds, but works just as well for rats. To use this foraging toy you have a few options. First, you can use the cup foraging toys to give your rats treats and regular food. I'd recommend filling these with tissue or crinkled paper after you place the food/treats into the cups in order to add a bit more foraging aspect. You can also add extra crinkled paper to the wicker ball, and slip some treats inside it as well. Finally, you want to hang the foraging toy on your cage bars using the handily provided c-clips.
As for the rats the way they use this foraging toys is by either digging around in the cups and wiffle ball to get out any treats and food placed inside. They can also chew on the wiffle ball or the cups or even the seagrass itself. This foraging toy is almost fully destructible and while I usually prefer to have more reusable foraging toys this toy can still last a while depending on how chewing obsessed your rats are, plus even if it gets destroyed its a nice change that allows the rats to enjoy chewing up and nesting with the materials. And while the wiffle ball and seagrass themselves are likely to to be destroyed pretty quickly the cups will likely last longer, and can be reused after the seagrass is gone by tying them onto a c-clip and clipping this onto the cage bars or top. As for cleaning since this toy is fully destructible (with the exception of a few plastic pieces on the cup toys) you likely won't have to clean it much. You could wipe it down, but personally I just leave it and similar toys in the cage because their position on the cage wall makes them unlikely to get dirty before the rats have a chance to tear it up. And as for refilling the only things you really have to refill are the cups, which can easily be popped open and filled with food/treats/crinkled paper/etc. You can also add food/treats and crinkled paper to the wiffle ball, which also only takes a minute or two (although my experience has been that wiffle balls get chewed the fastest so I almost never have to refill them because they get destroyed first). Overall this is a fun foraging toy that makes a nice change over other foraging toys by being destructible and fun to chew up. They enjoy foraging with the cup toys and wiffle ball, and enjoy chewing up the seagrass and wiffle ball and then nesting with the resulting materials. Its not the most complex foraging toy out there, but its not meant to be and it works well as a hybrid foraging/chew toy. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/3dMxBJg
Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 34th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the push and pull bird foraging toy. Like many of my rats foraging toys this one is made for birds, but can also be used for rats. To use this toy you first want to unscrew the top, then place a handful of small treats in each of the 2 top containers. Then you want to gently shake the toy, allowing as few treats to fall through it, and finally you want to hand it up in the cage using the metal chain the toy comes with.
Now in terms of rat use the way they are supposed to use this toy is by pushing and pulling on the blue plastic pieces, which block holes inside the toy and when manipulated enough should allow treats to fall through the holes and to the bottom. Unfortunately despite how it is supposed to work this toy isn't nearly as responsive to the rats input as it is supposed to be. The blue pieces move easily enough, and my rats seem to enjoy biting and moving them around, however they don't really influence if the treats at the top can make it to the bottom. This toy falls in the same category as other foraging toys with specific requirements for treat size in that if you don't use the perfect sized food it doesn't work well. Due to the way the holes inside the toy are designed medium to large food pieces can get stuck in the holes even when the blue pieces are open, and the only way for the rats or other animals to dislodge them is by shaking the toy (either by pulling it around or pushing it). On the other hand if the treats are too small they may simply pass through the holes whenever the toy even slightly moves, removing a lot of the challenge. In order for this toy to work you can only really use treats the size of a black oil sunflower seed, and even these sometimes fall outside the range of acceptable size. This specific requirement is the main reason I have mixed feelings about this toy, because while my rats can still use it they can't really use it as intended. And this isn't just because this toy is meant for birds because by reading the review on this toy you will see that many bird owners had similar problems with it. I feel like a better implementation of this foraging toy's activity can be seen in a prior foraging toy I reviewed by dogs, which is the gambling tower dog foraging toy. That toy had a huge advantage in that the "levels" holding up the treats were very large, so treat size could vary a lot and still work perfectly. The main downsides to that toy were that the rope used to use the toy could be chewed and destroyed if left with the rats unsupervised, along with the fact that once the platforms were removed the foraging toy will no longer be useful until a human reset. This toy tries to remedy these issues by being made of acrylic and so its not chewable and the pull and push levers are places such that they block opposite sides of the toy, so when one is blocking one side and pushed it then goes to block the other side and vise versa. But it doesn't implement the mechanic of pushing/pulling the platforms overall well which is the main issue. Cleaning and refill wise this toy is okay - the only way to access any of the inside is to unscrew the top but even then that only gives you access to the top portion of the inside. Other than that the inside is inaccessible other than through the small treat holes and so if you wish to wash this toy it will need to be air dried afterwards. Typically I just wipe down the outside as you can only use solid treats in this toy anyways so the inside doesn't really get dirty. As for refill that is done by unscrewing the top and placing a handful of treats in each side container. This is easy enough, but the treats can also easily fall to the bottom if you shake the toy during the refilling process which makes it a less ideal way to refill it. Overall this foraging toy is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I initially got it years back hoping it would work like a typical bird foraging tower, with the rats having to pull each side once to get a treat to fall from the top of the toy to the bottom. And while this toy is designed to work the same way it just doesn't do its job all that well. I think the main issue is that they tried to make this toy continually work as a foraging toy with the 2 internal sides while if they had used one internal side they could have had this toy only work once between resets but at least do its job and work as intended. Still, my rats have gotten some use out of it and they do seem to enjoy playing with the push/pull levels, so its not a complete loss. I'd hesitate to recommend it over other foraging toys because the use is so spotty but since its perfectly safe and still works in some regard I will continue using it for my own rats for the time being. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/3nO7SVz Foraging Friday playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGThSDBAdLEJCz3MLbBroobmYqsWtFOMB Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 33rd foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Nina Ottosson By Outward Hound Dog puzzle foraging toy. This foraging toy is meant for dogs, but like so many dog foraging toys it is also perfect for rats. To use this toy you simply need to remove the white bones, slide out the red containers, place treats in each hole, replace the bones, slide the red containers back into place, and finally place a few small treats into each red container.
Now as for the rats the way they use this toy is pretty simple. They have to figure out just how to maneuver each piece of the toy in order to get to the treats inside/below. Usually my rats will go for the red drawers first, because they are the most obvious treat containers. Then they have to remove the white bones in the center, and finally they can scoot the red drawers over in order to get to the treat holes underneath, giving them a bit of an extra challenge. As for cleaning and refilling that is quite easy with this toy. Refill wise all you have to do is place treats in the red containers and under the red containers and bones, then let your rats enjoy figuring out how to remove the treats. Cleaning wise you can either wipe down or wash the toy, then dry it with a towel. None of the parts are unreachable so you don't just have to let the toy air dry, which is a huge benefit over cleaning many other foraging toys. Overall this toy is a fun and cute foraging toy for rats and they very much enjoy foraging with it. They especially seem to love finding the "secret" treats hidden under the red containers, which can't even be removed until the white bones are, encouraging them to really explore and investigate the puzzle fully each time. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/34v0pla Video showcasing this foraging toy:
For our 32nd foraging Friday I will be reviewing the Bird Mini Bucket Foraging Toy. Like many of my rats foraging toys this one is originally meant for birds, however it works just as well for rats. To use this foraging toy you simply have to fill the bucket with goodies such as crinkled paper, food, and small toys. Then you pop in the ball on a chain to add some extra challenge, and hang this toy up in the cage using the attached metal chain and clasp.
In order for the rats to utilize this toy they have to dig through the bucket and any crinkled paper, toys, and of course the included chained on ball in order to get to any food placed inside. I've mainly used this foraging toy to give Oxbow and my rats have no problem digging right down to the bottom to get their food. Sometimes I'll even place some treats at the very bottom, encouraging them to check the buckets often to see what goodies await them inside! Cleaning and refill wise this toy is also very easy to take care of. To refill it all you have to do is set aside the ball chained inside the bucket, place your treats, toys, crinkled paper, etc., into the bucket, and then place the ball back into the bucket. You don't even have to remove it from the cage to refill it, which is a huge bonus in my eyes. As for cleaning since everything is either metal or plastic and nothing is enclosed you can just rinse it down quickly, dry it with a towel, and immediately use it again. Overall this is a fun toy for rats and mine really seem to enjoy using it. I ended up loosing mine for a few weeks prior to this review, but before that I had it in the cage for months and used it as one of the primary ways to give my rats their normal Oxbow, along with some occasional treats. Placing it back into the cage now makes it seem like no time has passed and my rats still enjoy being able to rustle through the bucket to get to the goodies below. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/3cRtknl Link to the foraging Friday review playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGThSDBAdLEJCz3MLbBroobmYqsWtFOMB
Video showcasing this foraging toy: |
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October 2021
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