How to give your rats a life of luxury

If you want your rats to be happy throuought their life, follow these steps.

Step 1 Cage

Buy them the biggest cage you can afford, preferably a wire cage for better ventilation. Rats can easily escape from wide cage bats, so be careful! they will also climb on the cage bars, so
its preferable to buy horizontal bars. + its better to have levels in your rat's cage.

Comments

[SIRJAMES09]

for their teeth, I would give them a small block of sugar maple wood....the must have enjoyed it, because it didn't last long. :)

[SIRJAMES09]

or corn cob works well too. :)
I agree with you, straw is bad for all small animals.

[SIRJAMES09]

or just go here & it does all the math for you. this will tell you EXACTLY how many rats you can have in the given space.

http://www.rattycorner.com/odds/calc.shtml

I found this earlier & thought I'd share

[Sharmie]

You should NEVER use a wired bottom cage or straw.
tut tut

[jet_ski]

aw, you made me miss my lil rattie

[MacLean]

 did yours die in the winter like mine?

[Ranie-K]

It's just pining for the fjords!

[threemilechild]

 Also: If your rats are male, avoid giving them orange juice or many manufactured foods with a citrus flavoring. The specific culprit is d-limonene, which binds with a protein in their kidneys to produce carcinogens. Female rats (and most other animals) are fine with it, though.

[CarStalkerZ]

i have a brid not a rat but i like it any way

[CarStalkerZ]

bird i mean

[eggyeggyeggy]

i have a bird too and i am getting a rat in feb

[ratcrazy648]

its so beautiful!

[lord mowington]

NO NO NO, straw is too dusty, i use compressed paper pelletts

[tnielsenhayden]

I use shredded corncob. Straw bedding made my longhaired Syrian hamster so obviously unhappy (it got stuck in his fur) that I had to change it the next day. I didn't have it around long enough to find out about dust problems.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, <a href="../../../member/ratcrazy648/" style="margin: 0.0px;" title="view ratcrazy648's profile">ratcrazy648</a> obviously cares a lot about their rats, so I have to assume straw bedding works for them.

[yoda1234]

Isn't a cage with wire that the rats have to walk on a bad idea? Everything I have read says that the wire is hard on the rats feet. I totally agree that the cage should be as large as possible. I have two rats and have a 6 foot cage for them. I also use Yesterday's News for litter. This can be bought in the section with cat litter and was highly recommended for any small animals. I haven't tried the hay yet but I intend to do so.

[tnielsenhayden]

That's the "Highrise" model from Martin's Cages, the same one I use for my own rodents. They've been very happy with it. The trick is to lay down old mousepads or other floor coverings on the wire mesh levels.

If your rodents are the kind of gnawers that will chew their floor coverings to pieces, make sure you use non-toxic flooring materials.

[AmberGailRavin]

Yeah, a wire bottom, or wire wheels can give your rat bumble foot, which can be really gross and get infected. A solid bottom is best. I have a 30x18x30 petusa cage. Figure I'll throw in this tidbit of information while I'm at it. The best way to find out if a cage is the right size for the number of rats you have is to take the dimensions, multiply them, and then divide them by 3456 and round DOWN. Buy the biggest cage you can afford, but that should be the maximum number of rats in the cage. For instance, my cage is 30x18x30, and 30 times 18 times 30 is 16,200 and 16,200 divided by 3456 is 4.6875, round down and that makes it 4. No more than 4 rats should be in my cage. That's a good trick to calculate how many rats to have.

[zipzapper859]

so say i want 2 rats.(witch i do) i would take 2 times 3456 and that equals 6912 so that is about what dimensions should equal multiplied together?

[ratsarecool12345]

I am getting a rat so I needed to see how its done and these steps are awsome!

[wandalee]

i hope you got two rats, they need the contact of another rat it's very nessasary for their mental health...it's never too late.

[Ms.Stabs]

Straw isn't that good for rats aspen bedding would be the best bet, that's what I use and the wire cages cause something called "bumble feet" it's where the rats feet swell and harden which causes them pain. The cage is a good size and all you would have to do is make covering for shelves and ramps.

[JohnnyZu]

Thanks for the write-up!

[taleya]

Straw isn't as good for rats, unfortunately. It has fine dust that can cause respiratory issues, as well as scratching. Carefresh is good, or you can use shredded paper or cloth bedding

[lootsvele]

Thanks for this! My son has two rats and we didn't know about the bedding. We'll take care of that right away... Lotus

[hedgiehog]

i sure hope you're talking about domestic rats

[ratcrazy648]

Ur joking rite?

[ratcrazy648]

anyone gonna comment?

[rerat]

I LOVE my ratties, i have almost the same cage pictured. I have 3 juvenile males. They hate each other passionately, they squeal and scream and bit each others..er...prominent male organs..