# Chewing on EVERYTHING.



## cirice (Nov 15, 2015)

My youngest rat, Cooper, chews EVERYTHING. Except chew toys! 

She's destroyed a litter pan and is currently destroying the second one, she chews all the blankets, she chews on plastic baskets in the cage, and she chews on the bars! I thought at first it was stress, but she shows no other signs of stress. She'll go eat or groom or what have you, then chew on the bars, then go play or eat or groom or whatever.

I upped the food I give them just to make sure she wasn't hungry, and that didn't help anything.

I even slathered the chew toys in peanut butter, and all she did was lick it off and start chewing on other stuff again! It's not just one specific corner, either. She'll chew wherever she can. I've searched many threads about this and don't want to post on another (especially because some idiot mod on BAF banned me literally ten minutes ago for necroing TWICE), but I haven't found an answer that helps.

I'm not super worried about the plastic, as most of it (all from what I can tell) falls on the floor. But I don't want her damaging her teeth on the wire! 

What's causing this chewing, do you think?


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## peace (Jun 26, 2015)

Maybe stress? How long have you had her? Maybe try providing her with some plastic to chew on? Strange....


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

She could be bored. You could try a foraging toy to keep her interested.


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## Angel_Rat (Feb 17, 2016)

U could try and move everything around, the toys in the places she likes to chew kinda like putting a litter box in the area new rats like to soil in.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

You said she is your youngest but just making sure.... she is in a cage with other rats? What is the age difference? If she is much younger and they do not want to play with her it can be quite boring and a bit lonely still.

Crazy chewing like that is usually boredom. But also for some rats once they become a problem chewer it can be difficult if not impossible to get them to stop. 

I'd work on the boredom issues first. Rats are highly intelligent animals and some are even more then others. They need really good mental stimulation. Having alot of time outside of their cage to run, explore, sniff and think is really helpful. If they already get time out I would up it and do 2-3 times out a day instead of all at once. 

I have found alot of chew stuff out there are not very interesting to some rats. The one thing my rats do love is called a knot nibbler. Something about it really makes them go for it.

I would also try food puzzles. They make them for birds and you may have to try a few different ones until u get one she really likes. You can google or look on pinterest probably to find how to make some homeday DIY type ones I am sure.

Maybe even work with teaching her some tricks?

I'd also give her stuff to chew on that is interesting and can drive her focus. Get cardboard tp/papertowel tubes fill with treats, fold the ends and hang it from the cage. 
Take a cardboard box and close it with no holes and put it in the cage. She will make her own holes to get in!
Take strips of cardboard and newspaper & thread them through the cage bars. She will have a blast ripping it to shreds & pulling it into the cage.


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## InuLing (Dec 26, 2015)

I agree with Moonkissed. Sounds like boredom to me. My girls would chew on the cage bars when they got bored so I'd let them out for an extra long playtime and rearrange the cage. The chewing stopped when I did that. Of course I never gave them a chance to get into the habit. Chronic chewers can be harder to get to stop. My girls never chew on the chew toys I get either. I also gave them knot nibblers and they loved disassembling them but then get bored with them. Rats are foragers by nature so they love having to work for their food. I've buried their food in their digging box, hung it from the top of the cage, sealed it in a tp tube, put it in a puzzle treat toy, and played hide the food where I find a bunch of hiding spots around the cage and put one piece in each spot while they're free roaming and they get to find it when they come back. Babies and older rats alike love this. I also found branches a good way to get active rats to climb and use up their energy. As a plus it's also a good thing to chew. :wink:


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## cirice (Nov 15, 2015)

moonkissed said:


> You said she is your youngest but just making sure.... she is in a cage with other rats? What is the age difference? If she is much younger and they do not want to play with her it can be quite boring and a bit lonely still.
> 
> Crazy chewing like that is usually boredom. But also for some rats once they become a problem chewer it can be difficult if not impossible to get them to stop.
> 
> ...


She's about a month or two younger than Bea, my second youngest. They do play quite often. She gets about one hour out of the cage with the other girls, two hours on weekends. Apart from that I get the three out individually for about 20 minutes or so twice a day. 

I'll have to find a knot nibbler inside Australia, as the postage from other countries tends to get very high. I've tried other DIY toys and such, and she doesn't have a long enough attention span for tricks. 

I have, however, found one thing that helps. I put lettuce in her lettuce ball and she'll spend ages at it. I don't want to give her too much watery stuff, but whenever I put tissues and such, when she finds out it's not lettuce, she loses interest


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## Angel_Rat (Feb 17, 2016)

Can u take a picture of the cage so we can see how many toys she has, how big the cage is and so on, or tell us? May help


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## eaturbyfill (Aug 23, 2012)

No matter what I do to try to keep some of my girls entertained, they are just destructive. Mine are in a Critter Nation with plenty of toys and hammocks and are gotten out almost every day. It helped to give them things to shred -- paper plates, toilet paper rolls, cardboard, fleece. I think they were chewing on things because they wanted to create nests and weren't satisfied just having the aspen to try to do so. Thought I would share in case my experience could help. Good luck!


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

My rats don't care for wood toys, but if I give them a small toy parts they can actually hold in their hands they will go crazy for it. You could try buying small (rat can hold it comfortably in their paws) bulk bird toy parts and see if they like it. I bought about 60 small bird toy parts for less than $5.


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