# Do rats chew constantly on the cage wires?



## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

Hannah, my first rattie, seems to chew constantly on the cage wires while the other one, Two Tone, doesn't. Is this normal? I'm afraid she's going to chew through the wire!


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

My rats have only ever chewed their cage out of boredom - try to get them a bigger cage, rearrange stuff, add more enriching toys, let them out more, etc.


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## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

Just got a new hammock and hanging toy yesterday. I let them out quite often and play with them. I've kept the 20 long aquarium as a holding tank for cleaning their cage. Right now, I've put her in there as a 'time out' lol!


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## 1a1a (May 6, 2011)

I bet if you look closely, you'll see the rat is gnawing thin air. I have one who chews when she really wants to get out, she has never successfully broken through though as for one thing, her teeth aren't even making contact with the metal, silly goose.


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## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

That's funny 1a1a! I can hear her chewing and have felt the wires. They are rough compared to the others which are smooth.


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## Amy03 (Dec 23, 2011)

one of my older rats used to chew the cage quite a bit despite having a whole bunch of chew toys, then a while back I started giving them scraps of old material to nest in and now she chews that instead, she particularly loves chewing denim and scraps of old curtains that I got from a charity shop for her.


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## 1a1a (May 6, 2011)

She must be better at it than mine :-D. Great idea Amy03


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## BigBen (Nov 22, 2011)

I also gave mine some rawhide dog bones, which they like to gnaw on. But it doesn't stop them from shredding their hammocks and tissue box nests! If they weren't so darn cute . . . .


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## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

Well I learned a lesson this morning. I've been covering them at night with an older bath towel. This morning they had chewed several large holes in it. LOL! Guess I won't be covering them anymore! I wondered about rawhide but wasn't sure if it was safe for them. They have a lot of chew toys in the cage. It's funny, I give them a new toy and they carry it downstairs to their stockpiles. I never see them chew on any of them but there's evidence that they have


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## BigBen (Nov 22, 2011)

shedevil7953 said:


> Well I learned a lesson this morning. I've been covering them at night with an older bath towel. This morning they had chewed several large holes in it. LOL! Guess I won't be covering them anymore! I wondered about rawhide but wasn't sure if it was safe for them. They have a lot of chew toys in the cage. It's funny, I give them a new toy and they carry it downstairs to their stockpiles. I never see them chew on any of them but there's evidence that they have


Yeah, anything they can reach through the sides or top of the cage, they'll try to bring it inside. They even pull on my T-shirt when they want me to get inside the cage with them, silly ratties!

The Petsmart where I got the rawhide chews carried a lot of brands that had been treated to make dogs' breath fresh, or do other things. I had to search hard to find chews that were plain rawhide. Just saying.


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## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

Thanks BigBen. That's good to know!


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## shedevil7953 (Dec 8, 2011)

Thanks BigBen, that's good information!


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