The day before yesterday I upgraded from a tiny 10 gallon aquarium & built a 3 shelf cabinet cage for my two ratties..I attached some vinyl placemat onto the bottom shelf where some bolts & a few small holes in the shelving are.. well because my rats were reluctant to go down the holes we put into the shelves for them to go thru I stuck them in the bottom shelf for the night (that's where their food+water is).. today, when I went to spot clean their cage I noticed some of the placemat has been removed and/or eaten..it's not much, & I found a few small pieces lying around, but are they okay? Rats in the wild eat all kinds of stuff & they're acting normal.. should I be worried?

Is the placemat rubber? Keep a close eye on them. My rat Anakin ate some rubber from my daughters hairbrush and about an hour later he was stretched out on his belly and hyperventilating. Half an hour later he couldn't stand or walk. We dosed him up with antibiotics, hand fed him lots of water and prepared the kids for the inevitable...five days later he recovered and lived to be almost two and a half (he passed recently). We gave the antibiotic just in case his tum had been damaged by the rubber and to stop infection. Honestly, he was sooo sick we really thought it was THE END. Tough little sods, hehehe. He did a big white poop after eating the rubber too. It seemed to affect him neurologically.

Anyways, watch them closely, like I said. More than likely they will be fine. I didn't mean to scare you with the above story and hey, it had a happy ending after all! Best of luck.

Their home sounds awesome! I won't tell my three boys cos they'll be jealous...:D

My past rats have eaten A LOT of weird stuff.. Way worse than place mat. They should be okay, but keep an eye on them just in case.

Wow! bless Anakin's heart lol, I'm glad he was okay, & sorry for your loss! thanks for your story+advice tho, I feel better, & so far they're both acting normal!

& thank you too Keelyrawr, that makes me feel better, too :)