# Worst Cage Accessory You've Ever Had?



## SpiceGirl (May 20, 2018)

Starting a rant thread on troublesome cage accessories, mostly because I've come across a troublesome one myself. Here, I'll go first: Once upon a time, I got a ferret hammock. I honestly have no idea where this thing came from. It was tagless and impossible to identify online. When I got my two girls back in March, it just happened to show up with the cage I dug out of the attic. So I used it. I used it a couple times, and every time was a nightmare. To attatch it to the bars of the cage, it has your regular hammock attatchment clips. A metal hoop with a small cut section to shove the bar in, sort of like the outside edge of a paperclip. You think this would be easy to attatch like any other hammock, right? Wrong. These clips were made out of the sturdiest, unmovable metal I have ever seen in a hammock clip so far. Getting it on was hard enough, but getting it off was nearly impossible to do with hand strength alone. Dismantling it was a method of torture involving nothing but me, a pair of pliers, and the cruel, judging eyes of my rats, watching from their temporary cage. I think I have cried at least twice while taking down/putting up this thing. And even then, after all of my hard work and suffering with these hammock clasps, I have not once seen my rats use it. So that's that, and if you've read this far, I hope you enjoyed this rant and feel free to comment on it or add your own cage accessory rant. Today I am throwing that accursed hammock out.


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

The shelf that came with my cage almost resulted in the death of one of my rats so that would have to be the highest on the list. Not so much the actual shelf itself, its more the placement and poor design of the cage with rats in mind.https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...PkHGmgConWrS6USn8zPaUZ5i0554SD1F0KI1x-50AThis is the model I am talking about. Nothing seems alarming at first glance and I am aware that most people have cages with a similiar design but the problem is when you close the front doors. It leaves a small gap between the front edge of the shelf and the door. This is where one of my rats squeezed their head through and got their neck stuck. When I found and released her she was unconscious and her skin was turning blue. If this had of happened when I wasn't around she would have died. I still use the shelf but I flipped it horizontally so it is no longer up against the doors. Definetely something worth checking if you have similar style cage. I am always weary about them getting their heads caught in things now.


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## Sevenly-overwhelmed (Aug 4, 2018)

My worst cage accessory was the Snak-Shak. Seriously, do not EVER buy these for your mischief!!! Rats normally know not to eat alfalfa but when it's coated in honey and slapped right in front of their faces they can't tell. This led to two deaths in my cage. So, yeah. No Snak-Shak.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Sevenly-overwhelmed said:


> This led to two deaths in my cage.


Hey there, I'm sorry for your situation. I've only read of people talking about a friend-of-a-friend whose rat died from snak shaks. How do you know it was the snak shak? What happened?


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

Fu-Inle said:


> The shelf that came with my cage almost resulted in the death of one of my rats so that would have to be the highest on the list. Not so much the actual shelf itself, its more the placement and poor design of the cage with rats in mind.https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/...PkHGmgConWrS6USn8zPaUZ5i0554SD1F0KI1x-50AThis is the model I am talking about. Nothing seems alarming at first glance and I am aware that most people have cages with a similiar design but the problem is when you close the front doors. It leaves a small gap between the front edge of the shelf and the door. This is where one of my rats squeezed their head through and got their neck stuck. When I found and released her she was unconscious and her skin was turning blue. If this had of happened when I wasn't around she would have died. I still use the shelf but I flipped it horizontally so it is no longer up against the doors. Definetely something worth checking if you have similar style cage. I am always weary about them getting their heads caught in things now.


I closed the door once on my critter nation which has the same design and one of my rats got her head stuck in the exact same spot. It was only for 1 second because I saw it immediately and opened the door, but any longer and I think it definitely would have killed her, she was staggering around for a couple minutes afterward and I thought she wouldn't make it because she was so out of it and disoriented.  Also as nice as the big doors are on the critter nation, it's so easy to crush fingers and tails in it by mistake. I have to be so careful when all the rats are clamoring to come out of the cage at once and I'm trying to close it.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Coffeebean said:


> I have to be so careful when all the rats are clamoring to come out of the cage at once and I'm trying to close it.


That's the hard part. If you have a couple rats, it's not such a big deal but if you have five or six (or more) noses all going in different directions, it's next to impossible to mind all their noses and toeses.


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## Vampiric Conure (Aug 17, 2018)

My worst accessory was home made. To hang up things in the cage, I was using bent Paper clips, as per suggested to me by a rat group. The darn thing ended up poking a hole in my poor rat's side and she formed a huge huge HUGE abscess. Required a vet visit. I now use shower curtain hooks. Much safer


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## Zindi (Jan 6, 2017)

I just hate long fabric tubes, they are impossible to wash properly, especially if they have a small diameter, i just gave up on them and use different accesories. Also, i have a Savic Royal Suite 95 and a few times my rats' paws got caught, there's this metal rim on the cage and when a close the door the bar right next to it can catch a rat's paws if they are resting it on the rim, fortunately after 1 or 2 incidents they learned that if i click the door handle thingies they have to take their pawws off of it.


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