Nesting Material

Pet stores sell great nesting material: It's 100% unbleached cotton, comes in a little bag, and rats ('specially the girls) love to make a mess with it. It's especially good for rat moms - it helpsthem to build a great fluffy nest. The stupid little baggie costs around $4.

There's a better solution. Head over to your nearby fabric store. Search for the bedding section (quilts, comforters, etc). There you will find BIG bags of the very same nesting material - it's usually around $6 for 30 times as much. There's the 100% unbleached cotton as well as polyester (you don't want the polyster one). Or, if you want to double your value for your dollar, get the "toy" variety:

For around 99 cents a yard (1/3 yard is equivalent to the little bag found at the pet store) you can buy this stuff in rope form. Dangle it from the ceiling, tie it to the cage walls, whatever. Now they have to dig it out in order to make a mess! Oh the fun! The "rope" stuff is called "batting" by the way and looks like this:

tip: When navigating through the RatTails,
clicking on the image that looks like the image above
will take you back to this table of contents!

Disclaimer: There are many non-sarcastic accounts and tips on the web regarding rat care. This is not one of them. These are merely accounts of our experiences with rats, our perceptions of these experiences, where we've failed and where we've succeeded. These accounts are here for two purposes:

1) To entertain.

2) To help avoid repetition of mistakes

Remember! Your rat is not a science project, he is your friend!

All content contained herein © 1996-2007 by Andrew Waltz, Nathalie Baldwin, & the rats of RatRaisins, Inc.
Use of images and/or text without permission is prohibited.