# Playpen for rats



## RemboBoy (Mar 2, 2017)

Hello, I'm not sure what would be the best playpen for rats. I'm thinking of buying it from amazon/ebay, but a lot of them are wired and rats would easily climb on them and escape. Do you have any suggestions?


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## CosmicKat62 (Nov 24, 2014)

I've never tried it myself, but I've heard that taking a few cardboard tri-folds (like, the science project ones) and taping them together at the ends can make a great playpen - they can be as long as you want, are easy to fold up and put away, and the cardboard is smooth so that the rats can't climb out. And it's probably cheaper than a lot of the playpens that are marketed specifically for rats. If you want to see how to make one you can check out The Rat Guru on YouTube - she has a video on it (Easy DIY Foldable Playpen for Rats). 

Hope this helps.


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## RemboBoy (Mar 2, 2017)

Thanks for your suggestion!  but, sadly, I've been searching for the tri-folds and couldn't find them in any shops nearby. On the internet they're so expensive that I think I'd rather buy an already made playpen, the price is usually indentical or almost identical, at least where I searched for it.


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## Elise-R-R (Mar 12, 2017)

Type in 'celldeal fabric folding pet playpen' into amazon. I got the large one last week and it's great!! There's enough room for me to sit in with the rats and they still have plenty of room to run. The only problem is when I'm sitting in there the rats can climb onto me and jump out but that's easily avoidable by keeping an eye on them! Plus if they're in there alone there's a zip up mesh 'roof' that stops them escaping! I'll attach some pics on here so you can see what it looks like. 


Here's the pic from amazon (I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the whole thing myself XD




(I attached this one as you can see the top of the tent/playpen behind me to see how high it goes up)


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## RemboBoy (Mar 2, 2017)

That actually looks amazing!  But at least in amazon I couldn't find a single one that ships to the country where I live. Maybe someday haha


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## jess32247 (Oct 1, 2016)

If you can find a sign shop near you, a coroplast playpen would work great! Heres the tutorial I found for mine. Makes a huge playpen and folds down to almost nothing. I think I ended up getting a couple more then 10 sheets, but my total came out to be about $30 if I recall. http://hamsterhideout.com/forum/topic/67463-coroplast-playpen/


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Yeah, the mesh playpens work...for about 10 minutes . My rats always either chew through them (the one I got is now more tape than fabric!) or dig out (even with supervision...little devils!) What I do now is I save up all my boxes (grocery stores often will let you take theirs shipping boxes for free), and then I use either duct tape or gorilla tape to tape them together. Complete it by placing it in a circle, overlapping the edges, and binder clipping it together. Then add some weight in front of the crack for good measures, and fill it up with toys! The pen needs to be at least 2 feet tall, but even my 3 ft tall one gets jumped out of. I made mine super large so that my girls will give me at least ~15 minutes of peace XD. This method is pretty cheap, and the plus side is that you can move the fence around. Here are some pictures of my free range fence: 

The first picture is of the one I set up on weekdays, and the second is the one I set up on weekends.


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## brooklyn&cornflake (Mar 28, 2017)

Shadow <3 I've seen your free range area on youtube!! I love your channel! I would love to make an area just like it ;D


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## Elise-R-R (Mar 12, 2017)

Just thought I'd update. Shadow is 100% right!! They will chew through the mesh!! I spent ages grabbing my boys every time they where trying to chew it and I didn't realise Wade was chewing it at one point and he got out >







The little butt head chewed a hole in the mesh and escaped! I managed to get him before he could go anywhere thankfully but yeah, the tent playpens are poo!!


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## WelshRat (May 3, 2017)

I have been looking at that playpen on eBay for a while now but was worried the rats would chew through it. I'm assuming it must be stronger than it looks if you've had no problems with it?


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## WelshRat (May 3, 2017)

ah wait sorry just realised I missed the above comment about them chewing through it, guess I'll give it a miss then lol


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Yeah, you won't find any playpen a that work well for rats on Amazon. Trust me, I've looked and looked, and the cardboard pen has worked the best for me so far. You still have to watch the rats while their in it, but it's harder for them to escape.


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