Rat Toys – Great Options at Cheap Prices

The Best Rat Toys – Great Options at Cheap Prices

Turning Trash Into Treasure

We’ll start with the lowest end of the price range – free! If you’re anything like me, you don’t like spending a bunch of money on expensive toys, only to have them destroyed in minutes. The thing is, rats are chewers. No matter how much attention or activities you give them, most rats just love chewing and destroying stuff.

We can’t really blame them, they’re foragers! That’s why my favorite toys to give my rats are out of my recycling bin/trash. Below are some of my rats’ favorite (free) destructible toys that would end up in the trash anyway:

·        Boxes – Rats love boxes, and they’re so easy to come by! I didn’t realize how many free hiding places I had for my rats’ cage until I started saving all my boxes from my kitchen. Pasta boxes and cereal boxes in particular are their favorites.

If you think a box might be too small for your rats, reconsider. They love to squeeze into small spaces, and even if not many rats can fit in it (though they’ll probably at least try) it gives them the perfect size box to move around the cage and tear apart.

What if the cardboard box is too big for their cage? Use it as a free roam toy! I love turning the boxes our bedding comes in into rat hotels or castles to use as climbing toys during their free roam period, and I daresay they love it too.

Keep in mind, the box doesn’t have to be empty! Try putting treats inside and closing the box to give your rats a fun foraging opportunity. If you really want your rats to have a good time, give them a full box of tissues. While this isn’t technically “free”, it’s cheap, gives them entertainment, excercise, and provides a safe place to sleep once the box is empty!

When I give my rats a tissue box, it always keeps them busy for a couple of days as they shred the tissue and move it around the cage, creating little nests. For even more fun, hide treats inside the full tissue box!

·        Toilet paper rolls/Paper towel rolls – Confession here: I have taken empty toilet paper rolls from friends’ houses to give my rats. They make such great chew toys not only on their own, but as a treat stuffer too! For extra fun, leave a little bit of tissue on the roll for your rats to forage for bedding.

·        Drink trays – The next time the coffee shop or fast food restaurant you go to asks if you want a drink carrier, say yes. Seriously, these make great sleeping spots for rats! If you want the best drink trays, save the ones from Chik-Fil-A, our four rats love each sleeping in a pocket of the drink carrier.

Even if it’s not a carrier that makes a great bed, they can still be used by small pets as a small animal foraging toy, by stuffing crumpled paper with treats inside in each section. Another idea is to take two, fasten them together with ribbon, string, metal clips, or pet safe glue, and hide treats inside!

·        Paper bags – While loud, paper bags are bound to be a hit with your little furry friends. They can serve as a bed or hideaway, and then when the rats decide to utterly destroy it, it makes great nesting material!

Next time you enjoy a bagged lunch, save the empty bag for your rats and watch them play to their heart's content!

·        Egg cartons – Not only do eggs make yummy treats for rats, you can use the empty egg cartons as a foraging toy! Crumple some treats inside twelve pieces of paper, put each piece of crumpled paper inside the egg carton and close. Put the carton in the rats’ cage and watch them go nuts!

Foraging toys like this create mental stimulation for your rats as they try to explore and figure out these tricky puzzle toys you've created for them!

·        Mismatched socks – Have a single sock that you just can’t find the match for? Repurpose it into a rat toy! Just throwing it in the rat's cage is fine, but a few fun twists can be made with the sock as well.

By cutting the toe off the sock, you can create a tunnel for your rats! It may be hard for them to tunnel through the loose sock, so I recommend fastening it to the side of the cage with zip ties for best results.

Hanging it in the cage gives your rats something to pull on and tear apart. If you really want to give them some incentive, try putting some oats or cereal in the sock before hanging it in their cage!

·        Old clothes – Clothes that are worn out, or just ones that you no longer wear are perfect for repurposing into hammocks or just extra fabric scraps in the cage. One time, we even hung up an old pair of pajama pants in the cage without doing anything to them! The legs worked great for tunnels and a place to rest, eat, and sleep for our rats.

Old winter hats are very easy to turn into hammocks. Simply turn upside down and fasten it somewhere in the cage. I've also seen old bras used with great success!

Dollar Stores

Dollar stores are a great place to find a wide variety of things that can either be used in a rat cage, as a rat toy, or easily turned into a toy. My two favorite dollar stores to shop at for rat cage supplies and diy rat toys are Dollar Tree and the 99 Cents Only Store.

·        Dollar Tree – My three favorite items at Dollar Tree are baskets, rope, and seasonal decorations for the cage! The key here is to get creative. I like to walk through each aisle and think, “What could I turn into something my rats would enjoy?”

Baskets and rope are always available at the Dollar Tree. There are the standard baskets (my rats’ personal favorites) that can be fasted to the cage with zip ties or just set in by themselves, and depending on the season there are themed baskets as well.

For example, we use the web shaped baskets lined with fleece during the Halloween season, and connect them together with shower curtain rings. When using these baskets in particular, make sure you line them with fleece so your rats’ toes and/or tail don’t get caught in the small spaces of the basket.

For ropes, I like to buy both the regular rope to create little bridges or climbing ropes for our rats, and the dog toy ropes in the pet section. These are a little sturdier than cotton rope and provide a cheap addition of climbing toys to the cage the rats can climb and gnaw on.

If you’re also looking for a cheap free roam set up for your rats, Dollar Tree has poster boards that make a great fence. Simply buy around ten of them (or more if you want a larger area), fasten them together with binder clips and you’re good to go!

·        99 Cents Only Store – While I mainly go to Dollar Tree for my rat cage needs, I love the 99 Cents Only Store for the crazy amount of zip-ties you can get for cheap, as well as the shower curtain rings. With the amount of baskets and hammocks and cloth hung in our rat cage, and having to change it at each clean, I go through a lot of zip-ties! Being able to get them cheap helps keep costs down.

Don’t have either of these dollar stores in your area? Not to worry! Using the ideas above, go and check out your local dollar store or value market for items to fill your rats’ cage with! 

Grocery Stores

Just because a toy is marketed towards other animals as opposed to rats doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it! I always like to check out the pet aisle at the grocery store for fun toys for my rats. Cat toys are especially great for rats to play with (just make sure they don't have catnip included).

Last time I checked out of the grocery store with a ton of those plastic cat toys with bells inside I got asked how many cats I had. It was a great opportunity to educate the cash register about pet rats and how great they are (I may have even shown her pictures)!

Another great aisle to check out at your local grocery store is the craft aisle. Popsicle sticks can be turned into a mini house for rats, a trick prop, or just something for your rats to tote around and gnaw on! If using glue to create anything with the popsicle sticks, be sure it is a pet safe glue. 

Fabric Stores

While fabric can be on the expensive side, I like to go to Joann's to check out their clearance area for the fleece scraps. With these, you can either make a hammock, or cut it up into smaller strips to fill your baskets with. Your rats are sure to love nesting with it!

Websites like Fabric Wholesale Direct also have good deals on fleece, flannel, and other fabrics to use for your rats hammocks, liners, or bedding. 

Used Toys

Thrift stores are great places to search for things to use as pet rat toys or to decorate your rat cage (just be sure to sanitize them first). There’s always so many interesting things to find, and with a little creativity your rat cage can become a unique space!

You can also check Facebook marketplace or Craigslist for deals on used toys and supplies, sometimes you can find some great stuff for pretty cheap!

Sales

If you are wanting to buy newer rat toys and supplies, but don’t want to break the bank, keep an eye out for sales on places like Chewy, Amazon, and other pet stores and websites. Even smaller businesses will have holiday sales sometimes, so always bookmark them and check back in if you find the items too expensive at full price. 

DIY Rat Toys

Some people are handy, and others aren’t quite as gifted in that area. Thankfully, making the best rat toys is SO EASY! They are literally so happy with just a empty box filled with crumpled-up paper with some seeds in it.

For easy chew toys, do just that – crumple up a piece of paper with treats in it, stuff it in a toilet paper roll and fold the ends shut. If you want to get more creative you can put string through it and hang it from the cage to give your rats more of a challenge.

For more complex toys, you can break the pet safe glue out and make them mazes, houses, or anything you can dream out of popsicle sticks! In DIY toys, your imagination is the limit to what you create. 

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide helped you not only save some money on rat toys, but also opened your mind to all the possibilities on what you can use! Do you have a favorite place to get cheap rat toys, or a neat DIY you use for them? Share below!