# A Cheaper Playpen.....with pics!!



## Fanciestrats (Mar 10, 2015)

We searched for quite a while for a decent playpen prior to picking up our rats, and there didn't seem to be any feasible alternatives out there. We absolutely NEEDED one because we have radiators in every single room that the rats like to try to wedge themselves into and we can't plug them up with towels when winter comes and they are free ranging in the bathroom. 
There were no great walls in stock, and we wanted something without bars....so the fiance came up with our own (sorta) great wallish design after searching fruitlessly at Lowes for the correct sort of material and then finding it at Home Depot.
SO...potentially good news for those of you near a home depot....it's relatively cheap! The fiance said he paid around 30 dollars for the materials, including the industrial(?) Velcro and the single sheet of plastic. (which he cut with scissors, so no tools required) I have included a picture of the label on the plastic material to aid you folks in your inquiries....other than that, I can only tell you that it is working beautifully for us so far!









The playpen is generously sized. Two people can easily fit inside.









The two cut pieces are secured with velcro. It is at least 2 inches thick and extremely secure.









Rolls up tightly....









....and is stashed invisibly behind a chair for rat playtime!

The label may be too small to read in this post but this is what it looks like....it says "Plastex waterproof wall panel. .60x4x8 (it is cut in half, so the length is more like 16)








whaddaya think?


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## spysquid (Aug 23, 2014)

THATS THE BEST IDEA OMG 
I have been looking for an idea like this -THANK YOU! 
I was going to get panels of corrugated plastic & tape them together so they could be folded up, but this is a much better idea! It looks like it's cut so it dips down, is that right? & How low does it go?


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## Fanciestrats (Mar 10, 2015)

You are very welcome!!;D It is one long panel that has been cut in half and velcroed(sp?) together at both ends. It is about two feet high. I haven't had any jumping yet, and i'm also careful not to put boxes in there that they can use as a platform if they want to try. I am going to have to look for interesting playpen things other than the octopus...


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## raindear (Mar 3, 2015)

Thank you so much for posting that. I have been looking for that exact product and thought it was only available in plastics specialty stores. Now, I know what to ask for and what I'm looking for.


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## Fanciestrats (Mar 10, 2015)

You are super welcome! I know the struggle, I figured that there were others in the same predicament.


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## Pandora and Luna (Jul 4, 2015)

how much of the panel did you use? I didn't understand. Sorry.


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## raindear (Mar 3, 2015)

If I understood correctly, they cut one 4' X 8' panel in half to get 2 - 2' X 8' panels that they then velcroed together into 1 - 2' X 16' strip and velcroed the ends of that together to make the circular pen.


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## Fanciestrats (Mar 10, 2015)

raindear is correct! You would only have to buy a single sheet of this particular plastic for the project, in addition to the velcro.


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## Pandora and Luna (Jul 4, 2015)

Thank you!

Sent from my SM-G386T1 using Tapatalk


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## Rattienewby (Aug 31, 2014)

I made this and LOVE it!!!! Totally solves our small apartment play area problem!


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## diinytt (Jun 15, 2014)

This is genius!, I've been using boxes that I cut open to make into one huge rectangle but they always find a way to escape lol. I'm going to make this asap, thanks!


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Please keep an eye on post dates when responding to threads and avoid posting in topics that have been inactive for several weeks. Thank you!


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