Hanging Fire Hose

A Hanging Fire Hose toy for antlered animals

This hanging fire hose toy is extremely simple as it only requires a few strips of fire hose and 2 small pieces of wood but, I’ve had great success in using it with several antlered animals. The hanging strips of fire hose allow antlered animals to rub and bash their antlers around to their heart’s content, and since this simulating a natural behaviour, it will allow for continuous enrichment opportunities with minimal effort.

Building materials

• Fire Hose
• 2 pieces of wood, either 2×4’s or thinner planks like I’ve used here
• Screws
• Drill and drill bits
• Sharp knife

Building Instructions

1. The first step to putting this hanging fire hose toy together is going to be determining how long the strips of fire hose need to be. You also need to determine how wide you’d like the hanging fire hose to be, I have opted for 4 strips of fire hose that are all about 4 inches wide, giving a total width of about 16 inches.
2. Now being very careful not to hurt yourself, you can cut the fire hose to length with a sharp knife. I personally do not use exacto knives when I cut fire hose as I find they have a tendency to snap, I instead opt for a sharp pocket knife. If you do use an exacto knife I would recommend the use of safety glasses for this reason.
3. Once your fire hose strips are all cut to length you can then line them up and place your two strips of wood on either side like a sandwich. Then, being sure not to strip your wood you can then screw the pieces of wood together being sure to put at least a screw through each piece of fire hose to make sure none slip out.
4. Your hanging fire hose toy is now almost done! This step depends on how you wish to hang the toy. If you want to hang it from an eye hook then you can screw the eye hook in right between the two strips of wood. If you wish to screw it to a wall or doorway (like I’ve done above), pre-drill a few holes in the center of the wood pieces and screw it directly to the wall.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Tips/ Comments

If your looking for a fast and easy enrichment item to make for an antlered animal, look no further then this simple hanging fire hose toy. Although this one is very simple and easy to put together it has a high chance of success and antlered animals will use it from the time they are rubbing the velvet off right up until their antlers drop!
Speaking of antlers, it’s just about the time of year where all of our antlered friends have lost their antlers and with that comes great opportunities to find shed antlers in your local forest or park! There are many uses for shed antlers including making a great chew toy for your dog!