Weekly Rat Facts: Rats Like To Chew

So this is what Lucky's Space pod looked like after he was done chewing on it. This was new about 3 months ago. It's made of hard plastic, so it took him a while to chew in into submission. Every time he laid in it his butt stuck out the bottom but he didn't care. lol 

I bought him a new one and put it in his cage this morning when I cleaned it. He thanked me by chewing on it right away. lol 

Little stinker. 

Rats like to chew. They will chew on anything and everything so if you put them on the floor for free range time you have to make sure they don't get a hold of any wires because they will chew on them. 

Rats chew all the time to wear down their teeth. Since their teeth constantly grow then need to wear them down or else they will grow right down through their jaw. Some rats have misaligned jaws and their teeth don't wear down evenly and in those cases, their humans have to cut their teeth with clippers. A vet will give you the right clippers to get the job done right. To do that you have to wrap the rat up in a small hand towel or cotton blanket like a burrito and train them to let you open their moth and trim their teeth. You can also take them to the vet's office and let them do it. 

I give my boys hard dog biscuits, wooden bird toys and other hard toys for them to chew on to keep their teeth worn down. But Lucky loves to chew on his space pods. I might as well just buy another one right now because I know I'll need another one in about 3 months. lol 

Lucky chews on things more than any other rat I've ever had. He's pulling on my shirt here. Most of my shirts have holes in them because he's fast.

He can chew a hole in my couch cushions in 5 seconds flat. I just sewed another hole up on this couch. looks like I need that needle and thread again.