We have two beautiful male rats, Bob and Oscar. They are roughly 4 months old. They have a 3 story cage with lots of toys and get loads of love, attention and exercise.

Tonight we sat and watched as they both worked out how to open both cage doors! They are the standard hamster/rat cage doors, the type that push shut and are quite a tight fit. You have to pull them quite hard to open them. They just keep pushing and biting until they open and now have such a good technique that they can do it in seconds! :o Rats are very intelligent animals but we've never had one before that managed this.

Obviously I don't want them escaping overnight and nibbling stuff or getting lost. I have temporarily managed to secure the doors with the aid of several 'D' rings from my sewing box and a pair of plyers! I need a better, more secure way of ensuring they don't just climb in and out as they please. I thought about buying a couple of small padlocks so we can secure the doors but still open them to let them in and out.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so, what did you do?

Thanks :thumbsup:

Try wilkos/b&q etc for a small clip - like those found on the end of dog leads.
Worked for me :)

My rats could open the doors of our cage too. We had to use a keyring ring - (does that make sense!!?? :huh: ) to keep the doors shut as there was no way they could get that off! Just make sure whatever clip you use is safe for them and doesnt allow the door to open enough for them to squeeze out!! Good luck! :thumbsup:

When cats at the Shelter work out how to open the cages we use either bolt ring type keyrings or karabiners to keep the doors closed. Both need opposable thumbs to open them, but no keys.

On our cage doors theres like a bit of over hang metal (for want of a better description) so we push that over the top catch so they can't open it

Thanks everyone. I never thought of keyrings! I ended up buying 4 small combination padlocks this morning, 2 for each door as 1 still allowed them enough room to squeeze through.

If they manage to work out the combinations and escape again I'll sell my story to the papers and make a fortune lol!