# Chewing hammock straps



## KansasJayhawk (Dec 5, 2010)

Hi all. I'm new and I have a question regarding the behavior of one of my rats. I've been buying hammocks for my rats, and they love them. The problem is that one of my rats, Nicolas, chews up the straps that hold up the hammock to the point where it just falls to the floor. I'm on my second hammock and I don't want to keep buying a new hammock every week. Is there anything I can do to make this less appealing to him? (My rats have plenty of other options for things to chew throughout their cage, but Nicolas really likes the strap.)


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## catsandscales (Oct 21, 2010)

On my homemade hammocks I don't use straps... I just cut an itty bitty hole in the corner (big enough to fit the clip through) and hang! That way there isn't an 'edge' or a strap for them to target.  You might just cut holes in the corners and leave the straps to distract him longer. XD


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## AMJ087 (Aug 27, 2008)

I just sew mine back up. I had a rat that would chew them too so I jsut sewed up the spots thagt she chewed. You can also sew on new straps made out of any type of material or cord.


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## lashes (Sep 12, 2010)

One of my rats doesn't even use the hammock, except for chewing. I also just resewed it, but I've also used other methods of tying it up. Since they've ruined the nice fleece hammocks I bought, I started making them out of scrap material and just using the ends of the fabric and tying them to the bars of the cage.


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## KansasJayhawk (Dec 5, 2010)

Thanks for the replies all. I may just do that; Nicolas has little regard for the material I use. He'll just chew it up regardless, so I may just make him something out of an old sock and I'm sure he'll love it just as much.


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## Alethea (Jul 14, 2010)

I had the same problem, all of my hammocks have met their end because of the straps being chewed right from the bars. Now I have been using just a square piece of cloth, poked holes in the corners and used metal rings to hang it from the bars. It seems to prevent them from having that string of material to chew and it they chew around the metal rings, you can always poke another hole and hang it right back up.

It is a pain paying $15 or more for a hammock to have it chewed down in the blink of an eye. And sewing the one I had didn't hold up for long with four girls swinging from it :3


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

Try this with a square piece of fleece. Clip the corners on secure with binder clips (no sewing required). There will be no straps drawing their interest. Is working well at my place!
http://www.officemax.com/office-supplies/clips-fasteners-rubberbands/bulldog-binder-clips


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## nsmj (Nov 26, 2010)

One of my girls also likes to chew off all the straps so I ended up cutting off the straps,poking holes in all the corners and attaching the hammock to the cage with metal shower hooks (from the dollar store) 
problem solved!


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## Alethea (Jul 14, 2010)

Tehe, that is what I just said nsmj  
It does work very well. Sometimes the metal rigns do not reach to all the bars, depending of the placement of the hammock, so I used plastic zip-ties to extend the hammocks reach. Personally, my ratties do not mess with the zip-ties because there is too much fun toys for them to play with ;3


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