Rat Hammocks - The Cube

Not all of our rats have liked hammocks (Gabe never took to them, we think he grew up without them and the unsteadiness freaked him out a bit), but everybody has loved a good cube.

Cubes are versatile - they can sit on the floor of the cage or hang from the cage ceiling like a hammock, the rats can hang out inside the cube like a hut, or lounge on the top of the cube like a small hammock. Cubes are square, but variations of the cube include a rectangular version and a triangular pyramid. With a little creativity, they can be designed to look like a gingerbread house, a haunted house, an army tent, a treasure chest, etc.

Cube with Built-in Back Door

The biggest problem we have had with cubes is that the rats feel a need to chew themselves a back door. No sooner would a brand new cube go in, than I would find somebody creeping in or out through a torn corner in the back of the cube. Well, we found a solution to that problem - design the cube with a built-in back door. Problem solved. Of course, the standard hammock chewing still occurs, but not so severely and the cubes last much longer.

If you make your own hammocks, we have found that tracing a container of Morton's salt makes for the perfectly-sized entrance hole. Tutorials describing how to make cubes, pyramids, and other hammocks can be found at Ratropolis' Rat Hammock Tutorials page.