[AngelofGrace]

Hi guys!
I don't have rats yet, but I've just finished setting up my cage (mostly, I don't have a main litter tray for the base yet but that's the only thing missing) and I wanted to ask for some opinions!
Please let me know how I can improve.

 

[AngelofGrace]

What is the purple bowl on the cage door? Do you have a water bottle?

Don't feel that you have to have a souped up cage ready for the arrival of the rats. Add things over time as you learn what your rats like and remove things they don't like or want to destroy in seconds. Sure it's nice to have a fancy cage set up like you see on social media but rats honestly don't care what their cage looks like. They just want a safe place to live and an unlimited supply of food and water and toys to play with and people interaction

Thank you so much! I may have gone a bit overboard, but I misunderstood the instructions of the rescue service I was hoping to use and I thought they needed a photo of a decorated cage sent in (as opposed to just the cage you owned) so I got all my materials together to set it up first 😅

As for the water bottles, I have two, you can see them to the left of the cardboard hide in the second photo, they have green and blue spouts. I heard it was best to get more than one just in case the spout jams.

 

[AngelofGrace]

Thats a great set up! The only minor thing I would do is add some nesting materials for the ratties to dig through. I tear strips of packing paper insead of newspaper (since my area still uses toxic ink, your area may be different.),throw it in the cage and your rats will go crazy dragging it to their favorite hiding spots to make a big ol' rat nest. 😁

Of course, they may take a while to get comfortable in their new surroundings so you will probably not see them do this right off the bat, but it will definitely make them feel a little more secure coming out in the open if they have some cover to crawl through.

I'm so excited for you! 🐭

That's a really good idea, thank you!