prevent chewing on wall

[redestarr]

what do i use to prevent the girls from chewing on the wall trimmings??  this apartment is not mine .. belongs to the dormitory .. fortunally it is in the area where it is not noticeable

Redestarr

[Fnordia]

Try rubbing a little bit of peppermint oil  (the pure oil, not sugary flavouring or syrup) onto the trimmings.  Rodents HATE the smell of it, so this should solve your problem.

If not, you can try some 'Bitter Apple Spray', they sell it at every pet stores- it works well to keep dogs from chewing, and I think it would work on rats as well.

[RKEM]

I don't know, my rats are ready to KILL for anythign that smells like mint in any type or form.

For me only two things have worked

- For the walls and large surfaces : bitter spray
- For phone cords : ecrynail ... its the thing you put on little kids' nails to stop them from chewing their nails. It tastes horrendous and they will only try it once. Believe me ... I've accidentally swallowed some 

[LifeInCircuit]

My rats always loved bitter apple....never tried peppermint oil, but they did always do for my peppermint tea. The only thing that ever worked for me was habanero sauce, but I think that's kind of mean and don't really feel right about it. They liked the milder hot though! go figure. And yeah, the stuff for little kid's fingernails DOES taste awful! Never tried it for the rats, but my parents used to use it on me when I was a tot.. 

[RKEM]

I tried it in desperation, it was the third time my monkey girls chewed off my phone cord, right flush on the wall, real pain to repair. I took a spare part of wire, painted the stuff on it, showed it to them, sure enough one gried to chew it to bits for about two seconds, then realized how horrible it was.

Then I accidentally swallowed some and shared their disgust 

We shared a banana afterwards to make up ... and my phone cord (permanently painted with the stuff where it meets the wall) was untouched from then on.

[star2]

I have a different problem- my rats like to chew on the carpet in the corners!  Upstairs where they can run around in the hallway there's four doors to leading to our bedrooms and they like to chew and dig the carpet right by the doors to try to get under!  My mom is trying to ban them from there because Aggie created quite the hole near the linen closet door...

[t-rat]

i put bricks in the corners of my room to prevent carpet chewing...

[brandy]

I never let my rats run around on the floor. They have tons of fun running around on a bed, couch, or table, and I have much less worries about them chewing on things they shouldn't be (whether those things are dangerous or just not to be chewed).  Now and then I get one that liked to jump down on the floor from wherever they're allowed to run around (Valrhona is my current jumper), but most are perfectly happy to stay where I put them.

[redestarr]

both of the girls is jumpers and climbers.. there are times, i would go.. how in heck you get up there? 

redestarr

[scout]

I've often wondered if I just put baytril on the things I didn't want chewed if that would work. They certainly won't take baytril without putting it into something tasty!

[star2]

I've often wondered if I just put baytril on the things I didn't want chewed if that would work. They certainly won't take baytril without putting it into something tasty!

lol scout.

t-rat: great idea for the bricks!!!  Thanks!

brandy: I wish I had more places for my rats to run around!  They like to run on the couches in the living room but that only works when no one is sitting on them.  Plus they like to scent mark A LOT on the couches.  They love the dining room table but I can only set that up on weekends (that's a deal I have with my mom).
So they get to run around in the hallway.    Big open space.  Nothing there to get in trouble- no wires, no furniture.  Just a big open square.