I made a hammock teepee for my rats and i don't know what to use for supports any advice?
I made a teepee hammock by cutting 4 triangles and a square. i cut a hole in one of the triangles and then sewed the triangles to the square. Then sewed all the triangles together. But now i have one problem.. When my rats sit in it, the bottom falls! i need supports but i don’t know what to use or where to put it. I don’t want it to fall apart. What do i do?
If you’re using fleece to make it, it will probably always sag a bit because of how fleece stretches. The only thing I ever found to help any when using fleece was a flexible piece of plastic cut to size for it; sand down any rough/sharp edges. You can then make a pocket on the bottom side of the hammock and slide the plastic in or you can make the pocket and sew it together to make it more permanent. You’ll have to hand wash and line dry it if you make the permanent one. You might also need to use a stronger stitch and/or thread.
You can also fold some fleece and put it between the plastic and the inside bottom of the hammock to make it more comfortable. I don’t suggest using any kind of batting; if your rats chewed through to it, it could get caught around their toes/tails/neck and cause serious injury and death.
You could also use stiff cardboard instead of plastic, but you obviously don’t want to make it permanent then.
I have found that flannel works much better for hammocks but you have to watch it very closely to make sure they don’t chew on it; replace it immediately if they do.
I used a toque to do something similar. First I sewed on a bottom. I also sewed a tab onto the top by folding the tab and then sewing it to the top of the toque. I pinched the material on both sides of the tab and just sewed across. It now hangs in their cage from a hook so that it sits on the floor of the cage.