Hi Matt! What a great birthday gift for your son! I don't have a CN, I have a hendry prevue buy I can address your fleece question. My two boys are unfortunately not taking to the litter box so they do urinate and defecate anywhere on the fleece. When fleece is prepared properly (washing and drying at least 3x), it actually wicks away moisture! So, the urine goes through to whatever absorbent layer you have underneath leaving the fleece dry. It's a cinch to spot clean poop daily off of the fleece and you can change the absorbent layer as often as you and your nose like! I use plain white paper towels which I change every other day, and I change my fleece every three days. My guinea pigs are on fleece, too, and their fleece is changed weekly. Their urine isn't as musky as my boys and my boys started out medically fragile so I just prefer to take the literal two minutes to change all bedding every three days. Soiled fleece goes in the wash with dye/fragrance free soap and dryer with no fabric softener and we're good to go. I get 4 liners out of a yard of fabric with bits to spare for the boys to use as hammocks of snuggle piles.

 

I use a litterpan with carefresh bedding in it and I use fleece and towels for the rest of the cage. My girls are really good about going in the litterpan. They must not like going on the fleece since they like to curl up in it, but as long as I keep the litterpan clean they will only go in there. And the only thing I did to litter train them is stop putting carefresh bedding all over the cage and just put it in the litterpan.

I don't have a critter nation, but I will soon. They look like amazing cages!

 

I've heard great things about both cages. The thing about the CN is that you can add on later. As far as pan depth goes, you can put something under the cage for any excess bedding to fall onto. I began litter training my boy Gambit when he was about a year and a half old, because I had never realized rats could be litter trained. It was fairly easy and he picked up on it quickly.
I would go for CN if I were you.

 

I actually have the rat manor, and I'm going to tell you good and bad.

Good, its all Metal, and from what I heard from my dad (My boys got out of their tank, we were planning to get them a cage later that week anyways, why I was at school) it is easy if not decent/ok to put together. the wire floors have small enough spacing to not cause any issues, I have actually never had bumble foot, and my boys actually like the wire floors to sleep on (its cooler, I need to get them some tile soon). Also for Me at lease it is easy to decorate. It has 6 square feet (max of 3 rats). when we had 3 rats (RIP Charles) it was decent size, maybe a tad bit small, but no one complained, actually all 3 spent almost the whole day on just the top part of the cage so the bottom part was almost never used.

Bad. it Can be difficult to clean. My pan actually bent so it can be difficult to put the Cage back into the pan. The Half shelves (you should never have to move the middle shelf) are a Pain to get down and back up. Also the price. when We got it 2 years ago it was $100 new (we got the Petco to honor the online price of $80 though luckily). now its $85 which is still expensive for this size of a cage. I can find much bigger cages for cheaper or maybe 20 dollars more. If you can find it on craigslist though It is a good deal (typically its 30 to 50 dollars on craigslist in almost new condition).

I use fleece (or paper towels since I only have one set at the moment) with a litter box with Yesterday's news. They typically don't make a mess, minus when we have paper towels as the bedding and Storm decides he wants to act like a female and make a nest out of all of it. They typically don't poop outside of it, and if they do and its always in the same location I just move the litter box there and its solved in till I decide they want it moved again.

I've never had a critter nation but I have heard nothing but good reviews on it. Martin cages are also recommended, I personally would get it with a removable pan (no cage wire above it) since especially the bigger models will be hard to clean without it. They are a tad bit more expensive, but I think have deeper pans or are all metal (Not sure on that, not a Martin cage expert either).

 

Thanks for all your input.

I have heard and looked at the Martin's, but I can't bring myself to spend over $30 in shipping alone, and I live in the U.S. I think I will pick up the Rat Manor. I can order it online for sale at $68 and get free shipping. I don't think that's a bad price at all.

Now just to do some more reading on diet and figure out what to feed the little guys.

 

Why not check out the Super Pet Exotics cage? It is the same price and bigger than the rat manor cage (The dimensions are 30 high by 18 deep by 30 wide and it costs 68 from Amazon). I have the knock-off ALT version of the cage that is essentially identical and I really like it. Some people dislike the plastic shelves, but I don't mind wiping them twice a day. Boys tend also not to be chewers so the shelves likely will not be chewed to pieces. I also like that I don't have to use fleece to cover the shelves if I don't want to unlike all wire cages. The plastic shelves can be a pain to snap in and out until you get used to it, however. It also has a deep pan so that you can use bedding (if your have a boy like I do who doesn't seem to understand the concept of a litter box) and it doesn't go everywhere. The base quickly detaches from the rest of the cage so you don't have to disassemble the whole thing to change the bedding to boot. It's good permanent housing for 2 males size wise, but due to the plastic parts I doubt it will last 20 years. If you do upgrade eventually, you can always keep it around as a spare cage because it is relatively small. I know the wire part of my knock-off (which is more expensive now sadly) just unfolds to assemble which is pretty dark neat if you ask me, but I couldn't say about this one. I can't imagine it is much harder to disassemble.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Super-Pet-First-Exotics-Large/dp/B000TZ5BRI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349131424&sr=8-1&keywords=super+pet+exotic+cage

 

I had considered that one, but I have read through multiple reviews of several different types of similar cages that the bottoms can and often will be chewed through. Sometimes within a few hours or days of being put in their new home. I can't afford to take the risk of getting rats that will do that and have to purchase yet another cage.

 

Aah, I had forgotten about that happening with some rats. From what I remember, it's more likely with female rats than males. My boys have not turned out to be chewers (the worst they have done is provide themselves new exits to enclosed hammocks. They completely ignore all chew toys) so the cage works well for me. You'd probably be safe with typical boys, but I totally understand your caution.

 

I figure I will probably be fine too, but financially I can't afford to replace a cage soon if it does happen that way. I am getting my 2 rats, brothers actually, from a local breeder, so they should be cared for and handled well. I am also limited in local stores as I only have a Petsmart and a mom and pop pet shop here. So online is probably my best bet. I am still kinda considering the CN it's $135 for the single with free shipping from www.petstreetmall.com. However while that does seem to be a good deal, it is still twice what you suggested or the Rat Manor. October is just a difficult month for us, we'll see how it turns out and I'll post up what I end up deciding on.

 

Woo Hoo!!!! I kept searching through our local CL and couldn't find anything, happened to keep looking and found a used double Ferret Nation for $100 also comes with 2 plastic corner litter boxes. The ad was over a month old, emailed just to check anyway, and it's still available. Setting up the arrangements now to pick it up some time soon.