I just got a lovely, new, spacious home for Augustus, and maybe for a new baby boy as well, if that works out.
When I first started investigating keeping rats, I remember reading that walking around on those little squares of "bars" in the "wire bar" cages was a cause of bumblefoot. (We're not talking about galvanized metal, here. We're talking about bars that are coated with whatever that plastic-like stuff is that they use to coat the bars of bird cages.)
Later, the information I got was that the prior information was untrue, and that bumblefoot is caused by DNA and unsanitary conditions.
ALL of the rat cages at the store with "levels" have the same setup: the floor to the "levels" is made up of those coated wire squares. Each square is about 5 cm. per side. Since there was no choice, I got a lovely 3-level, and figured that I could customize, if necessary.
* My first question is, is it harmful for rats to walk on the kind of flooring that I have described above, or is it, as the (rat owning) salesman at the store said, "perfectly fine?"
* My second question is, if it is necessary to "customize," how would you do it? I know that plexiglass can be cut to size, and fitted over the wire flooring, but I know that there are drawbacks to this, as well. (I don't want any little toes being caught between plexiglass segments.)
Thanks much for the help!
When I first started investigating keeping rats, I remember reading that walking around on those little squares of "bars" in the "wire bar" cages was a cause of bumblefoot. (We're not talking about galvanized metal, here. We're talking about bars that are coated with whatever that plastic-like stuff is that they use to coat the bars of bird cages.)
Later, the information I got was that the prior information was untrue, and that bumblefoot is caused by DNA and unsanitary conditions.
ALL of the rat cages at the store with "levels" have the same setup: the floor to the "levels" is made up of those coated wire squares. Each square is about 5 cm. per side. Since there was no choice, I got a lovely 3-level, and figured that I could customize, if necessary.
* My first question is, is it harmful for rats to walk on the kind of flooring that I have described above, or is it, as the (rat owning) salesman at the store said, "perfectly fine?"
* My second question is, if it is necessary to "customize," how would you do it? I know that plexiglass can be cut to size, and fitted over the wire flooring, but I know that there are drawbacks to this, as well. (I don't want any little toes being caught between plexiglass segments.)
Thanks much for the help!