# Rat chewing apart hammocks to sleep in, other rat not happy with it



## Ratatouille11 (Jun 13, 2017)

So I have two rats and they are fine together, everything works. My first one will sleep just about anywhere and has a weird thing for chewing on seams. He took 2 out of the 4 seams off the first hammock I got him after he only had it for 3-4 days. He would chew on it a little from time to time, but never anything bad. I got him some blocks and these apple wood sticks. He wouldn't really chew the whole stick, but loved the bark. Now after say 3 more months of having that hammock in the cage one day he just started tearing into it. He chewed off another seam, separated the two layers and chewed about 3-4 holes into it. After nearly completely destroying it he let it be. I put a new hammock in the cage and he restarted the process, but this time faster . Same thing with the two seams in 3-4 days. This time he started tearing into it after 2 months. Now this became a slightly more serious problem being that the new hammock he just wrecked is my other rat's favorite hiding place/bed/toy, he loves that thing to death and is always in it. He sleeps in the new hammock every night. 
Now on a sub note for a sec I put a ferret bed in the bottom of the cage, thinking that it would provide another comfortable place for them to hang out and not spend all their time in the liter pan. My first rat destroyed that bed a mere 5 hours after I put in it: all the seams gone, 8 holes, foam ripped out and shredded, and the stench. He completely doused the bed in pee; it was still damp when I picked it up, and it had a stain so the pee had to be there for some time. It's almost like he was saying "Ok, i'm done destroying this one, you can get me another one to rip apart now".

So taking from that side note he doused the new hammock in pee as well when he was done destroying that one. I have given him things before to rip apart and play with like that: paper towels, paper towel tubes, pieces of felt, and so on. He has never drenched any of those items in pee except for the ferret bed and the new hammock. 

I am becoming concerned and annoyed with this because I don't have the most lucrative job and I don't want to keep buying hammocks all the time because he keeps destroying them. Now the concerned bit is because my second rat loves these things. I had some cash for it so I got a third hammock. The two of them seem to love this one more than the previous two, so far it is intact, though I am worried he is just preparing to tear that one apart too. Any ideas?
Also can anyone solve the drenched in pee mystery? That part completely confuses me.


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

I've found that some rats just like to chew fabric, and you really can't stop them (one of my girls used to be obsessed with chewing holes in my shirt, which sucked). Some rats (intact males in particular) also like to "marinate" in their hammocks (meaning they like to pee in them and then sleep there). My girls do this on occasion as well, and while its gross it's just something I've accepted will happen.

Chew sticks are pretty boring in general, and my girls just ignore them. The only way I've found to help prevent chewing is to stuff the cage with more dynamic toys like ropes, ledges, ladders, boxes, etc. Wicker balls are probably my rats favorite stationary chew toy, but they destroy them within seconds. Eco cheese chews are their favorite edible chew toy, and these definitely entice the rats to chew on them. But they're kinda expensive, and even these usually only last a day or so.

I think your best option is to provide several hammocks in the cage. And you don't need to go buy the expensive ones either. Just buy some a fabric rectangles from your local craft store (These are 25 cents at my local Joann's Fabric), buy some safety pins (around 12 should work for one hammock - they come cheap in packs of 100's though so this isn't an issue), and put 4 safety pins on each corner. And that makes a super cheap and comfortable hammock for any rat. I've even used old clothes like pants and sleeves to make "tube hammocks", which the rats really love them and treat them the same as the commercial ones.

I started making these simple hammocks when I got tired of replacing those $4-12 dollar hammocks, and even though I still repair the old ones and use them occasionally, one of my girls is a chewer. These fabric square hammocks are nice and cheap, letting my girls rest comfortably in them while also not costing me much if they chew them. I usually have 2-3 hammocks in my SCN (housing 4 rats), and usually they'll only destroy one at most. I'll continue to hang up even the destroyed fabric squared ones by moving the safety pins inward until it gets too small, so even the chewed ones tend to stay useful.


And as for the ferret beds, yours still lasted longer than mine lol My rats seem to personally feel that all stuffing *must* be outside the fabric, and they take great pleasure in pulling it out and moving it around. And like your boy, many of my girls think it's a great spot to pee on, adding insult to injury and making the whole thing a waste. So I've stopped buying those, as rats will be rats and that means destructive little things that spare no thought for future sleeping arrangements 


I know it's hard to see, but the purple hammocks in the CN photo are the DIY ones I was talking about:

In the next picture, the two black hammocks are actually pant legs and hang likes tube underneath.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

I agree with Shadow <3, use lots of diy hammocks instead of a store bought hammock. I've had fabric chewers in the past and it's not worth ripping your hair out over. Just give them stuff that they can destroy that doesn't cost you much. At least they're keeping themselves occupied =)

Hammocks can be made out of anything from pieces of old clothes to simple scraps of cloth. You can find old fleece blankets at the thrift shop or garage sales. RattyCorner.com has a good page on making simple hammocks. I also like the method youtuber "zmashd" uses (video here). She basically just uses curtain clips to stretch and hold a folded piece of fabric in place. It's super simple and quick to put up/take down. They also double as additional levels for the rats, creating more "floor space" in the cage.

Another option could be to pick up some cheap plastic baskets (at the thrift shop or dollar store) and hang them from the roof of the cage with metal shower curtain rings. You can thrown some fleece scraps into the basket and they can chew on that to their heart's content.

As for the peeing on the hammocks,... yup. They do that. Anything fabric in my boys' cage gets washed twice a week.


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