# Need some suggestions about my cage liner



## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

So I have always used/made my cage liners - they are towel bottoms with fleece tops, and sometimes just a towel alone. My boys never made a fuss about them, they were very much lap rats, however my new girl Boxxy is having the time of her life burrowing in them being hyper as can be!...tossing them around, bundling them up into a ball, I even tried making one that went up the sides of her cage to hold it in place; she chewed straight through it. I noticed she loves to sleep in-between things, so I've made her little floor pouches she can burrow in, but she still insists on tearing up the liner. I would prefer NOT to have to use a loose bedding, but these liners weren't meant to last only a couple days! lol There isnt anything to wash after shes threw with them.

A little about her: Shes just finished up her 2nd week of quarantine, so far her health seems great. Trust training with her is going really well. She jumps right onto me now, but she still has fears of being held...I know in time she will overcome that fear. I recently found a breeder with available babies and I am waiting for her to get back to me. If/when I get that baby, that would give me an extra 2-3weeks while that baby is quarantined to work with Boxxy a bit more before starting introductions. 

With that said, I'm wondering if she is just lonely or if this is normal girl behavior. She is my first female rat, I have only ever had boys in past - all of which were squishy lap rats. lol 

I suppose I could do half a dig/burrow side and half a loose bedding side. I dono. What do you all think?


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## CarrieD (Nov 20, 2011)

I have a girl who loves nothing better than to tunnel under the liner - and she'll chew holes where they're tucked in to get under, if she has to. She then proceeds to cruise around under there and overturn houses, litter pans, food dishes, etc. It's kind of fun to watch this lump cruising around creating chaos, but then I have to clean it up...

So, I'm trying a few things, too. I'm still tucking the liner down tight, but I've been throwing in lots of other cloths - flour sack dish towels are inexpensive and work great - for her to play in and it's helped. I'm also gonna try a largish plastic bin filled with scraps or shredded paper for them to "tunnel" in. Could you try less expensive liners for the time being until you find something that works?

My girl is in with 5 others in a double CN, so I don't think it's necessarily lonely rat behavior - might just be what she likes to do for fun. She may do it less, though, when she gets a cage mate to play with.


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

Hahaha that sound just like what she does, and yes its very fun to watch until you have to fix it back. ;D The dig box with fabric and paper scraps is what i was thinking of doing, so I guess i will give that a try and I'll have to add more floor pouches too. 

I'll use normal towels for now, I've just been picking them up at garage sales and goodwills anyways so I don't mind what happens to them. Its the ones I took the time to sew fleece onto that I didn't want her to destroy over night, haha. Shes having a ball doing so though, I'm just happy shes having fun at least. 

Thank you so much for the info on your experiences and for the suggestions!


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## BigBen (Nov 22, 2011)

Mine are terrors and take great delight in shredding everything they can get their teeth on. I just made fleece/towel liners just to see what would happen and I fully expect to see shreds in the morning. On the other hand, I got the fleece cheap and the towel is past its useful life, so it's no great loss. But I do regret the store-bought hammocks and cuddle-cup. Oh well, live and learn!

One thing this crowd seems to like is strips of fleece to pull around and use as nesting material. It was so funny yesterday to watch the boys trying to put all the strips on top of one of their tissue-box nests. I have no idea why they wanted to do that, but they were very determined. Rats!


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

Hahaha!

She doesn't chew or mess with her hammocks or little floor pouches thankfully, just the liners. xD


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## JessicaKrystal (Dec 24, 2011)

My little girl Alaska did the same, in the end I switched her to a loose liner called CareFresh, which has been great. She still uses it to build mountains, make burrows and bury things, and her food is always getting lost amongst it, but I haven't noticed her sneezing from it, though there is the slight issue of her flinging it out of her cage everywhere...


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

Yeah I would prefer not to use Carefresh on the whole bottom part of her cage since I use it with her litterbox/litterbox training. 

Actually I guess I can update this! I made Boxxy a Dig-Box filled with towel-fleece scraps and toys which has helped a lot...whether its from her being distracted by it, or just that fact its holing the towel down some, she hasn't made a complete disaster of her cage for a few days. lol


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

I amhaving a similar issue. I also like the fleece because they are litter trained. So I don't want the same type of bedding everywhere. Plus fleece is so nice just to toss in the wash and not having to throw out so much trash with a total cage clean.

My girls are not chewing the fleece but they did chew up the towel I had under it. They just tunnel underneath the fleece and push it around until is is a ball in the middle of the cage lol. They like to push it all out from under the litterbox and then sleep under the box. So weird lol

Not a huge issue but I gave them some broccoli and it felt like they played with it more then eating it lol It was torn up everywhere! And so that bugs me. I don't want to have to clean out their cage everyday after giving them fresh food but I don't want it to sit there either hidden away. 

I am hoping to find some flat sewn together liner to fit the bottom of the cage and then give them some strips of fleece in their box. Hopefully that will help.


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## CarolineRose (Nov 18, 2011)

I use fleece as well in my double CN. I don't know if this is what you were going for but I figured I'd say how I make mine. I sewed a towel in between two layers of fleece making the top layer of fleece extra large. I had my sister sew an elastic band around the perimeter of the larger sheet (this part was too tricky for my mind) and then I wrap it around the edges of the plastic pan. It stays put and they don't chew on it much at all (<--- this might just be my girls though). This would only work if you have pans though.

I got the idea from ferret.com. I figure if it can hold up to rowdy ferrets then my polite, sweet little girlies should have no problem (this might be a slightly biased view♥). This is what their pan covers look like.


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## BigBen (Nov 22, 2011)

There was another thread, either on this forum or another one, where people were saying that quilting the liner seemed to help, because then they couldn't separate the layers. Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds as though it might work.


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