having a great cage...

 

There is no excuse to not have the best possible cage you can afford for your rats. Are cages expensive, yes in all honesty they are, but think from the perspective of your little rat. A cage is where your rat will spend the majority of their time. Their cage should be roomy, clean, and full of lots of engaging toys and cozy houses. It's important to have a cage with multiple levels so your rats can jump, climb, and run around. There needs to be room for hammocks, tubes, houses to hide or sleep in, a wheel to run in, and plenty of toys to play with. There are lots of cages you can find online and the good things is you can do plenty of research on them before buying them in store. Read reviews and look for on forums and breeders' websites for suggestions. Many website selling cages have the measurements available. You should take these measurements and input them in to a cage calculator. This will tell you how many rats can fit in to the cage comfortably and will help you better decide what type of cage you would like to have for the amount of rats your getting or own. It’s important to get a cage that is easy to clean too, a pull out tray can make your life so much easier. There are a lot of big pet store chains around Melbourne, at least in the North I know there are. Best Friends Pet Super Store is where I got my ferret cage that I use for my girls, but it was very expensive for the size and features $180. In the Epping area there are four or five different large pet supplies stores, take a look around before you make a purchase.

Ingrid from Ruby Rattery uses Ferret Kingdom cages which can be found here on Ebay or sometimes Gumtree if you're lucky! Below is her cage setup, it's a GREAT example of an amazing cage. Of course, she has a lot of rats so they need lots of room, but use it for inspiration as an example.

I currently have a J&M Exotics Rat cage, it's available in the US for US$50 but I paid AUD$90. It's a really fantastic one, easy to clean and very roomy. 

Another option is a homeaded style cage. They're great for personalization, cheap to make, and you can reuse old furniture like wardrobes and bookshelves. They can either be built from a bookshelf, cabinet, or similar structure OR you can build it entirely yourself. There are great instructions here on The Dapper Rat.

links...

Goosemoose Rat Forum
Ruby Rattery: Inside the Rattery scroll to the bottom to look at her cages, toys, and a neat video of her nursery
Rat Madness Rattery's Cages
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