[Mana]

I'm going to be getting a pair of young female rats soon. I've been doing a lot of reading about rats, but I wasn't questioning the size of the cage I have until I started reading this forum ^^; I'm sure the cage I have will be big enough for them in the beginning, especially since I'm home all day and they'll be able to spend a lot of time outside of the cage, but now I'm not sure it will be big enough for them once they're bigger.

This is the cage I have

Oh yeah, and since I've read that wire floors are bad for their feet, I've already covered the ramps and upper levels with towels. I also have a hammock in there. I know definitely that I couldn't fit 3 rats in there, but will it be adequate for two fully grown females? Or should I start thinking about a bigger cage now?

 

[JennieLove]

From the looks of it, I would deff get a bigger cage than that as they get bigger. That cage can only fit 1 grown rat, and even so I dont think that would be enough room. As little babies im sure its alright, however you will deff need to get your babies a bigger home.

 

[LizLovesRats5]

Yes, definitely get a bigger cage. Especially if you're going to spend that much money... you can find something better for that much.

 

[2manyrats]

You said you've already purchased that? Can you still return it?

 

[DonnaK]

Hi Mana. That cage should be ok to start out with, but rats grow so quickly I can't imagine it would last much more than a month. If you can return it, I would definitely do so. If you shop around, you should be able to find a bigger cage for the same amount or just a little bit more.

The general rule for housing rats is a minimum of 2 cubic feet per rat. They also need room to climb, so 19 inches tall really isn't very tall, especially for a full grown rat.

If you need more guidance when researching which cage to buy, you can put the dimensions into a cage calculator, such as this one, to see if it will be big enough.

 

[Mana]

Oh, I didn't buy it, it belonged to a friend of mine, and he kept two rats in it, which is why I didn't think it would be too small. But I will definitely start looking for a bigger cage for them now, although I don't have unlimited funds for that, and every large cage I've seen has cost in the $100 range, which is a bit pricey for me at the moment.. Where could I find larger cages for affordable prices? Other than ebay? And thanks for the feedback about the cage! ^_^

 

[lostbutnotforgot]

This is what I currently have my rat in.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/prod...mNo=19&In=Small+Pet&N=2047888+4294966744&Ne=2


It comes with a wheel (which took me a while to 'fix') and my rat loves it, but I'd get a wodent wheel if you could hang them on the sides. The ramps and shelves are plastic, so no worries about hurting their little feet. The base is plastic, so no rust over time. Certainly big enough to two rats.

My biggest problems with it are; It took me a little while to work out how to easily clean it. The shelves are hard to put in. If you use both ramps and the wheel you don't have a lot of room for other stuff. I have only one ramp up to the food dish and she can climb to the other, even though she mostly just climbs to the food dish anyways. There is only one food dish, but both shelves have holes in them. I'm thinking of hanging some sort of pocket from the other hole though, sort of like a hamock.

But for all it's problems I love this cage! Best of all, it's only about $10 more than your current cage. Here are some pictures of how I have it set up.

Ah! It's a hole!

Corner litterbox.

Run on the wheel.

 

[twitch]

look through kijiji.com you can select just about any city anywhere in the world and then it will also list teh cities near that city. for instance when i click on saint john in a list to the right hand side of the cage is all the other magor cities in the maritimes. i've gotten cages there worth at least $100 retail for $40-$75 then i attached them to cages i already had and presto! bigger cage! i've also seen a ferret nation for sale on there once (though they wanted too much for it). my point is you cna get some really great deals. its just people selling what they have so you may even be able to barter on price. then of course there are also the classifieds in the newspaper and the classifieds book like the buyer flyer. and then there's yard sales to look around on. you can get a few different sized cages and wire them together or link them with pvc pipe and the like. my first cage was a ton of hamster and bird cages wired together to give them more room. not ideal (no real room for toys and such) but lots of levels and ended up being fairly large. it only cost me 6 dollars. i made another one for the baby boys i once had for a while that was larger and better planned and that cost me $30. or you could make a grotto style from scratch ot modify an old bookself or dresser which you can pick up from pawn and second hand shops for only a couple dollars. you don;t need to buy new to have a cage your rats will love, sometimes just a bit of creativity and ingenuity is all that's needed.

 

[Vixie]

lostbunotforgotten- Rats don't need salt licks.

And also, I have the same cage. I've just taken out the two ramps and one of the shelves and replaced with hammocks and ropes, the shelves are TOO much of a hassle so I just spot clean that one. Kept the wheel, though. Meromi goes goofy without it.


I, personally, think that is a very good cage for a begginner who wants to REALLY customize their cage. The shelves just aren't worth the hassle, which is why I suggest it if you want to do your own thing with the cage.

As twitch said, there are many ways to build your own cage(and it's olmost always a fun thing to do). That may require some power tools or some good elbow grease, just Google 'grotto style rat cage' or something similar and I'm sure you'll get some good sites for that.

 

[DonnaK]

This is what I currently have my rat in.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/prod...mNo=19&In=Small+Pet&N=2047888+4294966744&Ne=2

I second this cage as a good starter cage for people not wanting to spend too much money. I had mine set up more like the picture in the link, though, with the wheel on the bottom and using two ramps.

I have since bought a second one and linked the two cages. This gave me much more space to play around with. I removed one of the ramps, put a hammock under the hole so they can pop in and out through the hole and various other things.

I find the shelves are easier to remove and replace now I've had the cages for a while, though they still make me curse occasionally. Like others have said, though, you can easily replace them with hammocks or something similar. Apart from that, I think they are an excellent starter cage.