# They HATE their playpen! Help!



## cccgina1 (Nov 11, 2012)

I couldn't have them running around on my desk anymore because they chomped through every cable on there and it cost me over $100 to get new ones. They have a martin's playpen, the small one, but big enough for them. I put toys in there, a house to hide in, a wheel, etc. They hate it!! I think they don't like being on the ground, they're used to being up on the desk and their cage is on the desk too, but i can't put this playpen up there. Do I just leave them in it so they get used to it??


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Actually, I don't think your problem has anything to do with the playpen be on the floor. Most noticeably the difference between the playpen on the floor and your rats playing on your desk is that when they are on your desk, they are also with you. It really does sound like you are important to them. Even when some rats are not snugly your cuddly they want to be with you. Generally this is a good thing.

I suppose, over time some rats will be able to make the best out of a bad situation, and they'll learn to play in the playpen, but don't expect them to be happy about not being with you and losing free range of your desk.

And yes, I've lost hundreds of dollars worth of wires and wiring in my home due to one particular rat. Of the rats of owned, I've only had one wire eater. The others would steal paper and such to build nests but for the most part I could let them free range it will, the other actually cut my headphone wires while I was listening to music. And when I went to get the soldering iron to fix the headphone wires she managed to slice the plug off the remaining wire and run off and hide it. She also sliced my video cable while I was writing a paper on the computer and cut my phone line while I was on the phone with a client. I'm pretty sure there is an a single wire in my office that hasn't been soldered back together and wrapped in electrical tape.


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## IndyYawns! (Oct 30, 2012)

Just ley them get used to it, also interact with them while they're in there so they don't freak out.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

I agree with rat daddy on that it's because they like you. The Whole Point of play time (in my opinion) is that they can interact with you. If they aren't interacting with you then there is really no point in letting them out of their cage.

My guys don't chew on wires at all. I think it has to do with Charles who chewed 3 wires in his life, and I think he might of gotten electrocuted and so the others realized not to chew them. The only issues I've had is that Soda loves to re-model my walls. But giving them stuff to chew on typically keeps him from doing it.

If your loosing so many wires you've had to spend over $100, then you have more issues then your rats. It's time to rat proof your desk and/or your room.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

You know lightningwolf it is a lot easier to say rat proof a room than to actually do it. There are literally hundreds of feet of wire in my office. And most of them have been soldered in taped. Sure, I could keep my big fat wire eating tail dragger in her cage, but I care way too much about her well-being to do that. We both agree that the main reason for taking our rats out of the cage is for them to be with us. During the warmer months I take our rats to the park where we have several acres of space to play. There are no wires there to get cut. And as Fuzzy Rat has been a shoulder rat or her life, it's pretty much her natural environment.

But come the winter months, I have an unheated stairway with no wires were neither I nor my rats want to be where have my nice warm cozy office where I can work while she keeps yourself busy. Unfortunately, every now and then she loses her presence of mind and slices up a few wires. Last week she sliced through the wires to my Logitech headset. I replaced it with a wireless headset. Come to open the box I find it has a USB cable to recharge its batteries, I'm not sure I'm any better off. Normally, I can keep tabs on her and she is about 19 months old now so she's slowed down a lot. But she is still very sneaky and very clever and I sometimes get distracted and wires are the price to pay.

I might add it's interesting that with extension cords she'll eat the rubber off both sides of the cable and leave the insulator between the wires. She also seems to have a fetish for any wires that connect to me. Headphones, headsets and microphones seem to be priority one.

On the other hand we've had a few other rats, including Amelia who were perfectly safe around wires. That's not to say that they were entirely desirable houseguests, they just didn't go after wires. Our part wild rat, left absolutely no trace of her presence anywhere around the house. She was a perfect houseguest. Another rat, had a bad habit of knocking things over on the windowsills and slicing string. So far Amelia hasn't done any damage, unless she gets spooked, then she jumps and things fly.

Yes, I know exactly how to prevent wires from getting eaten, but in my house the only way to do that is to keep our very best friend behind bars, and somehow I just can't bring myself to do it. Thankfully, I'm really good with a soldering iron and I've got lots of electrical tape.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

As I was dictating my previous reply, I glanced over and while I was distracted Fuzzy Rat had weebled her way from behind my monitor, across the computer, over the stereo, down onto my scanner, across my telephone and was holding my brand-new headset USB recharging cable in her mouth. Now keep in mind, Fuzzy Rat is 19 months old and weighs over 21 ounces, she's about as agile as a box turtle. As soon as I looked over at her she let go of the wire, or maybe I said something profane that caused her not to bite down but ironically while I was making a point she was proving it. She is resting comfortably in her cage now. Amelia is free ranging the house and it breaks my heart that I can't allow Fuzzy Rat to do the same.


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## cccgina1 (Nov 11, 2012)

Hmmm.. I don't think they want to be with me all that much because as soon as I try and hold them, they are scrambling to get down and go do something. lol

I have cables everywhere on the desk, I don't know how I would rat proof it. Best to have them play somewhere else. The laptop cord alone was 65 bucks, that was most of the cost.


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## RatGirl_Red (Nov 26, 2012)

we use the couch and sit on it and let the girls crawl all over us while we watch tv...i dont see the point in buying playpens because its just another cage you put them in


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

rat proofing is a constant battle of wills. It's definitly not a one off process. The only way to really rat proof is to have a room where you can free range without any wires and such in it. The bathroom is often a pretty good one of those, i'm lucky in that my rats have there own room that i have mostly stripped of cables and gone a bit overboard with wire mesh and plastic trunking for the rest. However it's not an option for everyone. Pens do work well, but if your girls are used to going to and from there cage this will be a big change and probably a bit scary. Why not get a tube that runs from the cage door to the floor of the pen that they can climb up inside, it may reassure them, then you'd need to block of access to the rest of your desk, perspex or correx is good for this. I have used tumble dryer venting tubes in the past, though this requires supervision as it;s easy to chew through. A ladder could work too, if there's no chance of them getting elsewhere from it


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## cccgina1 (Nov 11, 2012)

I thought about getting a tube. I still let them run around the bed, but sometimes I want them to have some playtime and can't lay there with them, so I thought the playpen might be good.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Just because your rats aren't laprats doesn't mean they don't want to be near you. If you've ever seen wild pack rat behavior, during forraging sessions the rats almost never actually come into contact with each other, but they do keep an eye on each other and stay close.

We ran across a large pack of wild rats outside our local zoo one evening. My daughter (then 6 years old)insisted on taking one home. So natually being a responsible parent (and assuming the likelyhood of her actually catching a wild rat between ornamenal bushes outdoors was somewhere between absured and impossible) I encouraged her to find herself a new friend... Well the result was quite unexpected, maybe it's because she was a little girl that smelled like rats, but the rats took turns being chased about the bushes. And rather than running away, more and more popped up out of the shrubs. Eventually there were so many ratties running criss cross around her feet, that I reassessed the situation and realized that she really might accidently snatch or step on one, it was also getting dark fast. At this point, I couldn't think that grabbing a wild rat while surrounded by a pack of her friends could have had a good outcome, so I broke up the game and went to complain to the zoo because they wouldn't let us bring our shoulder rat along when they had literally dozens of their own roaming the parking lot... 

Still the point I was making was that the rats were playing and forraging together, and with how organized the game looked thay were communicating, but absolutely none were snuggling or cuddling. With wild rats at least, huggles and snuggles aren't part of normal play behavior while staying close together is.

You know, I suppose I should have know better, earlier that summer when I was otherwise occupied she asked me if she could pet the wild squirrel in the side yard, same reasoning, I said sure go ahead, seconds later I hear, "Look Daddy, I'm petting Squirrley!" and yes, she was petting a juvenile wild squirrel right there next to my driveway. She tried to pick it up and bring it inside after I told her not to, but that's where the squirrel drew the line and hopped away. Maybe that too had something to do with her smelling like rat... 

In any case, no harm done, no foul.... as long as no one tells her mom I let my daughter "play with wild rats", it was quite an interesting learning experience, Mom wasn't too alright with the whole squirrel thing and wild rats might unduely concern her, unlike me she doesn't have as much faith in the gentle inquisitive nature of rodents.


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