Product Review:
The Rat Roost

Photo by Debbie Ducommun

For about the last six months or so, I have been seeing The Rat Roost at pet stores. Out of curiosity, I picked one up a while back and gave it to my spoiled girls, Anika, Phoebe, Merry, Callisto, Summer, and Milk. They didn’t care for it much.

The Rat Roost is a cylindrical natural plant product. I believe it is a section of bamboo plant, actually. It has a hole drilled into it for the ratties to have access to the soft, fluffy inner part, and both ends are open as well.

According to the hype on the package, my girlies were guaranteed to love their Roost, hollow it out and sleep in it and play in it. This failed to happen. I placed it in their cage, on the top level where they like to sleep. They chewed on it a bit and then ignored it.

I left it in there for about three weeks. Finally, Nate, my son, got tired of waiting and hollowed it out for them. They chewed on the soft stuff from the center, which he left in their cage, and then promptly went back to ignoring the Roost.

Just today, I saw some friends who have ratties. I mentioned this to them, and they said they had bought one too and their rats ignored it as well.

It’s kind of sad that this product, which is labeled and sold specifically for rats, was such a flop with mine. You may wish to consider trying it anyway. I don’t think it can do any harm, and maybe my spoiled girlies and my friends’ ratties are just strange. I may try again later with different rats.

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