Housing

My 4 current rats live in a Tommy 82 T3 cage. It is 82cm x 51cm x 152cm and according to the cage calculator on fancy-rats.co.uk can hold 11 rats. It is meant to be a 3 level cage, as it is here: Tommy 82 T3 rat cage, however, I have modified mine by removing the levels and cable tieing the 3 sections together to make a large aviary style cage. They climb about far more with it being set up like this and there seems to be more space.

I find it reasonably easy to clean, the only problem being with it set up like I have it, I can’t lift the cage section off the base, so have to lift all the substrate out, rather than simply tipping it into a bin bag. The access is brilliant, with 3 huge doors on the front and a large door on the top, though I don’t use the top door as the cage is on a table so I can’t reach it. It think it is made as a ferret or chinchilla cage, so the bar spacing is quite wide. Some people say it is unsuitable for does, but my four can’t get out, and my youngest two went in there at 9 weeks with no escaping. It’s definitely not suitable for kittens though.

Here is my set up:

As a spare cage, I have a Rene rat cage. I use this as a temporary cage for new arrivals before they’re introduced into the Tommy and Spike lived in it while he was here. I personally wouldn’t use this as a permanent cage due to it not being very high and I think a rat cage should offer plenty of opportunity for climbing.

Here is a photo of it while Spike was living in it:

I use Bedexcel, which is cardboard squares, as a substrate, with carefresh in their litter trays. For bedding they get a toilet roll that they shred as much as they want of and a big handful of shredded paper that I just chuck in and they can do what they want with it. I like doing this as I think it gives them something to do, and saves me sorting out their beds when all they do is re-arrange it anyway.

Written by Laura Young, 17th June 2007