After a bit of a quiet two weeks I sat down and made myself a list of all the toys and things that I could do to encourage my rats to help enrich their lives a bit more. I spoke to a few people on the North of England Rat Society's forum and Jemma has kindly given me permission to post this on my website to share with people and help give you some ideas.

In my mind you should aim to satisfy as many of a rats natural behaviours with the cage. This means using a few different groups of toys and accessories, most can be cheap or freely made from odds and ends though I’ll admit I get carried away and spend too much. Tabirat produced a brilliant little booklet on cage enrichment that you might be able to get a copy of, we normally have some floating around at shows. From my perspective I try and satisfy as many as the following as possible;

Climbing – I leave plenty of cage bars free, am not a fan of thousands of hammocks and shelves meaning the rats just have to step from one to the other. I also often include ropes to climb up, parrot toys, maybe a wine rack, a cheap plastic mesh plate drying rack and so on, all hung around the cage to add some climbing opportunities.

Digging – I have a perminant digging box in my cage now (I have the space so may as well), it’s a plastic storage tub (ikeas finest lol) filled with whatever I decide to use that week (from; hay, shredded paper, compost, sand, finacard, hemp, aspen, fleece strips and odd socks and mixtures of all those). I also have a deep layer of substrate (1 inch plus) on the floor and a couple of litter trays containing more substrate around the cage, sometimes I add a plant pot or Tupperware tub filled with hay or similar if I only use one of them. Digging is underated in many cages and its so nice to see them flinging stuff around the cage even if you have to sweep up the mess. Needless to say as I scatter feed the rats have a reason to dig too.

Sleeping – rats being rats they like a choice of places in the cage, types of sleeping places and even the texture. I try to have at least as many options as I have rats in the cage and include hammocks; normally one open, one more closed unless I have new rats then it’s all open hammocks until the settle in. I also have Tupperware tubs, baskets and plastic houses (such as sputniks, chicken feeders and a chinchilla bath house), all in rotation. I try and change the layout of sleeping places weekly, I also try and alternate between textures, so one week I might use fleecy hammocks, the next cotton, the next polar fleece and so on. Admittedly I have too many hammocks but my rats aren’t really chewing them so they last years.

Jumping – I leave decent expanses between ledges and hammocks and such, as with the climbing they actually have to expend a decent amount of energy to get round the cage. I do have things ready to catch them but I generally have at least 20cm between levels, sometimes more if they get to fall into something nice and soft like the digging box or floppy hammock.

Balancing – I use various bits and bobs from horizontal ropes (old dog rope toys), branches, parrot toys and bits of left over wood from the garage. It normally doubles as something to chew too. I specifically put these in places where the rats will use them, sometimes messing around with the layout a bit when I’m done (after observation) to get them to use them more.

Gnawing – there are always wooden toys around, nut shells, branches, occasionally dog chews and large nuts in there shells and so on.

Running – I leave enough of the floor space clear to let them get a bit of speed going, I also provide a wheel, though admittedly only 43/5 use it, then only 1 or two with any regularity.

Nest building – I provide ripped up newspaper, magazine curtains (magazines half torn up hung in the cage), hay, tissues, kitchen roll, fleecey bits and odd socks in alternation, the boys don’t build half the nests the girls do but it gives them something to carry around the cage.

Problem Solving – I do this via food enrichment mainly (as otherwise they woudn't bother trying lol), there’s a nice topic about that already, I go a little nuts with this one but it keeps my lads entertained throughout the day so I feel it’s more than worth it. I could list all the stuff I do here but it’s elsewhere in the forum and in your last copy of rattitude.

Water - a coup cup with some water in to allow for bathing if they should wish, changed daily

With all the above it is a lot easier if you have 1 cage to fill, but you could do it easily for bigger groups by just adding 1-2 things to cover each of the main behaviours. I also add the odd thing just because I shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near online pet shops or because I see them. I think most people actually provide most of those if they sit down and think about it, just by random things added from week to week.