Shredding and destroying stuff

[Lucille]

I had the not-very-good-idea of using some cotton carpet as substrate and within a couple days the rats had shredded it beyond repair (so I'm going to try YN)
Strangely, the little hammock I put in is still intact.
Do your rats selectively destroy only certain things?

[eagle41]

Yes they can be selective, although mine destroy everything.  It doesn't seem to matter if they have tons of toys in their cage the bedding and hammocks are always destroyed. 

[libertatis]

Oh yes, my boys are selectively destructive. Anything wooden or cardboard is chewed on within seconds of being put in their cage. But their hammocks and such...they don't seem to chew. Or even pee on. It's bizarre. It's like, they love the soft fuzzy so much that they refuse to destroy it.

Silly buggers.

[kady05]

Mine tend to shread when hammocks, etc. have been hanging in the cage for 'too long' (to their standards I guess). However, some weeks, they do nothing, and others, they put so many holes in the hammocks that I can't use them again  Like this lovely double decker:

[Lucille]

What a precious face!

[furmama]

My girls always destroy cubes. Especially if I leave one in for more than 3 days. If I change them out every 3 days, i can get about 2-3 uses out of them. Even making another hole in the back doesn't seem to stop them for long. But they leave everything else along.   Go figure, cubes are the most time consuming.

[artsiekat]

Mine used to never shred their hammocks, then one day I made a tube/hammock thing that was a bit too small for them and they shredded that while playing in it. It was like they discovered how much fun shredding the hammocks can be! They have shredded them since, mostly to add new features that I wasn't smart enough to add for them.

Some hammocks they won't shred at all and sometimes they'll leave them alone unless I keep them in for "too long".

I put empty toilet paper rolls in their cages and they'll never touch them for weeks and weeks, then one night someone will go nuts and shred the thing to pieces.

They certainly seem to have their reasons, don't they?

[RatAttack59]

If a hammock that's been used and washed goes into a differeny cage, my rats seem to take offense and eat them.

Cardboard gets peed on, remodled, and squashed flat within days in the larger groups (they hold up better in the smaller groups).

Can't use that excuse for the FN pans, though.  Good thing my cousin is making me metal ones.