RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:20 am

According to the cage calculator, if the space is used correctly, that size cage can house 12 rats. I'd say it'd be PALATIAL for two

About the wood, my 10 girls live in four connected cages, one of which has a hutch as part of it and though they do chew it a little, it's not a real problem since I give them other things to chew (toys, Greenies, hammocks, etc). Be sure to post pictures once you're done so that we can all be green with envy.
Sarah

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Sarah
Gus, Electra and Lillie (cats)
Artemisia Serendipity Timoune Paikea Eowyn (RIP) Nimue Chrysanthemum Mozart, Elizabeth
Ruby Sunrise, Angelina, Madeleine, Claudia, and the Angels

Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:06 pm

I believe melamite works well for cabinet cage shelves. Be sure to put a little "lip" on the edges tho, or the pee will run out

Wire is fine if it's the right size, 1/2 or smaller is fine (like martin's cages). If you're worried about their feet, put plastic canvas (for needlepoint) over the wire. That way pee will still go through, but it works just the same as a solid floor. I would suggest linolium on the walls and such. Get the sheet kind (not the tiles) and make sure it's attached well around the edges. Get lots of igloos, huts, hammocks and boxes for them to hide in

And mlescully's right, that cage will hold approx. 12 ratties

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Rats~Janine, Madeleine, Cooper, Basil, Dolly, Kitty, Ilori, Theo, Elliot, Vladimir, Freya, Devi, Yoshimi, Nigel, Rosshalde, Faust, Tolkien, Caleb, Mira, Ivy, Nemo, Willow, Nikolas, Lucian & Linus
Mice~Molly, James & Will
Beardie~Cleo

Tue May 04, 2004 7:00 pm

Although I've built a large cage for our ickle rodents, I'm not happy with it, and am going to redo large parts of it...

I'm not sure about some of the materials I'm intending to use, and their suitability for this type of enclosure... These include:

- Glazing Acrylic - lifespan and toxicity if they can eat it...
- Aluminium - not good for humans - for rodents??
- MDF - being eaten
- brass - lifespan?

As this enclosure is going to be in our lounge, I'd like to have something aestheically pleasing, but far more importantly, fun for the rats!

Suggestions and comments on the above?

Many thanks

OJ

Tue May 04, 2004 11:17 pm

By your post I take it you're in the UK, so glazing acrylic would be something like polyurethane? Aluminium is aluminum? MDF = ?? ... some sort of wood like the compressed plywood we have here? Maybe with a coating?

For what purposes would you be using the metals, and in what form? That's an important consideration. Where would you be using the glaze? The can eat even dried glaze, of course, but you'd have to got to a manufacturer's website and research the properties of the dried compound vs the wet. I would hesitate to use the metals in any form, however. Even uncoated galvanized steel, which is a too-common cage material, is susceptible to corrosion and can be dangerous to animal health. I'd use only a powder-coated or vinyl-coated wire for cage purposes.

If you will post more details about your cage and its construction, perhaps we could be of more help. Also, somewhere in this cage forum is a long, merged post on cage contruction that will probably be helpful to you, I'm sure you can find it in a minute doing a forum search.

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Kate & the M.O.U.S.
If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event ... what kind of film would you use?
~ Anonymous

Wed May 05, 2004 3:55 pm

Acrylic is different to polyurethane, and is used in lab rat enclosures as it's so easy to keep clean. I know the rat health in those places isn't paramount, but if they use it, it seemed reasonable..

The MDF is used to build the base, sides and structure, and to be covered with metal 'pet mesh' (my mistake, not aluminium - yup same as aluminium!)

The basic structure is simple enough - would anyone be able to host an 80kb image showing the details of the cage??

I'm not sure what to make the shelves out of to ensure they don't get eaten...

Wed May 05, 2004 7:31 pm

I am partial to the storage cube cages. I built a cage big enough for 6 rats for about $40.00. I used the underbed storage container with wheels for the bottom and the flip top lid for the top. Unfortunatly all I can find in my town is the storage cubes with large holes so only my big boys and my one trained little boy can stay in that cage. I have 13 other little boys that will need a much much bigger cage soon so I am despiratly looking for the kids storage cubes with the smaller holes. Right now I have 7 five week old boys in a cage made for two adults and the same situation for 7 girls...well, theirs is big enough for 3 adults, and the 6 boys and 6 girls are only two weeks and with their momma so I have a little time to get them a cage done. I wonder how much it would cost to have one of you ship me a few boxes of those kids storage cubes? hmmm.

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Sun May 30, 2004 10:26 am

Victor..fabulous idea! I hope you don't mind that I'm basically borrowing it, plexiglass and all. I'd been looking for a way to connect my old cage to one or more new cages, and when I got two brand new prevue cages for $10 the other day..well, it was time. =)

I did make one small change. Since I had a considerable amount of space to span with the tubes (I have space for one on one side of my computer stand, and space for the other two on the opposite side), and three cages to connect, I bought a Super Thru-way ferret tunnel. It's -much- cheaper than it would be to buy five or six sections of the tunnel, and a few elbows, etc, it's flexible, you can cut it to fit, etc. It looks like clear dryer duct, and stretches out to be 20' long. Since the tunnel is fairly thin, I'm going to drill holes in the outside pieces of plexiglass and attach the tube to it with pieces of thin wire poked through that, then through the plexiglass, and twisted to keep it secure. Then, the outside pieces plexiglass will just be permanently attached to ends of the tunnels. You loosen the wing nuts and remove the tunnel, plexiglass and all, to clean it, clean the cage, etc. I'm also going to have extra plexiglass squares without holes for the tunnel, in case I need to cover up the opening again fairly quickly.

Hope that made sense. I know what I'm picturing, but I don't know if I wrote it out correctly! Anyway, another huge thank you for the idea, and I'll be sure to post pictures if it works out.

Oh, one last thing. Since the tunnel I bought is so flexible, I'm going to have to make a little shelf on the wall between the cages and behind my computer stand for the tunnel to sit on. This shouldn't be too bad, though. Just a few brackets and some wood, painted the same color as the wall!

Sun Jun 27, 2004 10:01 pm

Don't know if this will help you any, but I converted a bookcase into a rat cage. Have a look on my webpage, might help a little.

http://www.geocities.com/nanaki_xvii

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Nanaki and the gang,
Pepper, Bailey, Willow and Truffles
Satan and Squeak
Ruby, Patience and Honey

My Angels
Monkey, Cookie, Nibbler, Mocha, Tia, Candy, Monty

http://www.geocities.com/nanaki_xvii

Thu Jul 01, 2004 6:52 am

Ps..i made my huge cage for approx $30 (cdn)

http://www.cavycages.com/

Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:34 am

Cool!

Wouldn't rats chew the coroform though and the links between the squares of wire?

Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:54 am

i don't know what it's called but u can buy it in stores like Staples Business supplies. It's a hard plastic edging that u would use if u made a book. Darn, i can't describe it well. Whatever it's called tho..it slips right over the edge of the coroform. I think they're relatively cheap so if the rat chews them, u can replace them. Maybe someone else will understand what i mean. It's just a long looking stick that u would slip the pages of a book in to hold them all together

Lisa

Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:55 am

I bought a bookcase made of mellamine (not sure of the spelling but it is white and waterproof) and added hardware cloth on wood frames as doors. Got the bookcase at Walmart for about $30. One suggestion is to brace each shelf and top and bottom with wood 1x1's cut to the width of the bookcase. Make sure you screw through the mellamine into the wood. The first one I tried collapsed before I finished. I was able to use it later to build a second add on cage. I used the grotto as an example too.

Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:28 pm

I used the grotto design as well to base mine on. the flooring on each level is linoleum. My kiddos don't chew, so it's worked well. In the boys' section, i put aspen or carefresh shavings on the very bottom level and they've trained themselves to use only that area to eliminate in. The top three levels is for the boys and the bottom two are for the girls, though only Isis is in there now until Orla is out of quarantine
Boys section:

girls section:

entire cage

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Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:25 pm

Hi gang - newbie here.

I'm in the process of converting a cabinet. It's got a laminate-type coating and is particleboard underneath. I've been told that I need to be concerned about the potential toxicity of this material. I was thinking of lining the entire inside and all the shelves with mac-tack, which is your basic stick-on cabinet liner. I doubt they'll be able to chew any of the original cabinetry and they'll have lots of other wood to chew.

What do you all think? Do I need to be even more careful and sand that puppy down?

All your ideas have been super inspiring. Mr. Green

Fri Oct 29, 2004 9:49 pm

Hi. I'm new here. I appreciate all the info I've gotten from this forum. Thanks everyone.

I registered so I could post about making a cage. I made one, and it is a really good cage, so I thought I'd share how. I don't know how to post pictures though.

I made it out of the wire shelving you can get at Home Improvement stores, and zip-ties. It is 20" x 32" x 72". Then I used the shelving cut to 32" as the shelves inside the cage. They are either 16 or 18" deep, and there are 5 shelves and the bottom floor. Anyway this cage is very sturdy, so sturdy I was able to make the front panels competely open (I cut them in half, so I can open the top half, the bottom half, or both), which makes cleaning so easy.

It cost about $100 for the shelving, and another $30 for the plexiglass I used to line the shelves (since the rats couldn't walk on them) - though using Coroplast that would have only been about $10. Anyway, it's a great cage. I'll post pictures if anyone cares, and if anyone can tell me how.

And to introduce my rat boys, we have 5 - Wally and Templeton, who are about 8 months old, and three little boys still in quarantine I recently got from a feeder bin (I know, but I couldn't leave them to be snake food), named (by my kids - well, I named Scooby) Scooby, Blackie, and Silvery.

Anyway, hi, that's us, and I really enjoy your forum.

Lara

Mon Nov 08, 2004 12:06 am

My boys really need a new cage but we're on a really tight budget right now so I'm hoping to build a cage in a while. I was hoping to make one with the wire shelving (I've seen a few people with this type) So my question is where would I buy the levels for the cage? I want the level to stretch across the whole width of the cage and just have an opening for the ramp so do they sell ones like that? If not, I have some sort of thin sheet of wood laying around (I'm not sure if it's plywood... don't think it is) (it's really hard and smooth on one side and the other is kind of etched looking) Would this be ok? It's cheap and easily cut into the shape I want so it would be great if I could use it. Thanks for your input!

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* Viia *

Bongo & ET: I'll miss you dearly, my precious little men Angel rat

Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:36 am

Mine is wire shelving - I used the 1/2" spacing, 20" wide, 72" long shelves; the sides are 1 shelf, 20" deep; the front and back is made up of 2 shelves, overlapped 8", so they are 32" total width; the height is 72". The shelves are held together with zip ties. The front is the two 20 shelves, each cut in half about halfway up, so the entire front opens up, or only the top or bottom half. (Makes cleaning very easy).

I then made the inner shelves (5 of them, plus the bottom layer) out of more of this same shelving - but only 16 or 18" wide, and the 1" spacing. I cut them to the width of the cage, 32", and zip tied them in (alternating them, so the rats don't have a potential 6' fall). Then I got some plexiglas like material cut to cover them.

The whole thing cost like $120 or $130. It's very sturdy, very roomy, and very easy to clean. I'd post a pic, to make it easier to understand, but I don't have a site to link pics to. I could email you pics if you are interested, just email me at larahaywar@aol.com. Make sure to title your email to me, if you do write, something like "rat cage", so I don't delete it unread. :-)

A big advantage of using the wire shelving is that it has those built in lips, and when they are ziptied together it makes them extremely stable, since they basically reinforce the corners.

Good luck.

_________________
Lara

2 dogs, Sniffy the beagle and Frankie the aussie
1 cat, Elizabeth the Empress
5 rats, Wally, Templeton, Silvery, Blackie, Scooby

Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:57 am

i built my own rat cage. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and it ended up being very inexspensive and my 2 rats love it. I also used a under the bed storage container. It took me a while to figure out what I should use for the walls and then it dawned on me that I already had what i needed... I had one of those small animal playpens that I used for my bunny to keep her in a small area to teach her to use the litter box. She got big enough that she could jump over, so it pretty much was useless to me. When I got my rats i discovered that they could escape from the smaller cage that i had setup for them. So I took the panels from the playpen and used cable ties to
attach them to the top of my other cage so they couldn't climb out. Then it occured to me that if i spent 12 more dollars on another playpen I could use the panels to build a whole new cage. It is very sturdy w/ no sharp edges and couldnt be easier to build shelves! If you break it down as far as how much I spent ... it was 24 dollars for 2 playpen sets, about 6 dollars on the storage bin and a dollar for 200 cable ties. So for
$31 dollars I got a cage that is 28 in long 14 in wide and 19 in high. and thats w/ enough panel left over for 2 large shelves, a ramp, and one panel left over that i bent into a basket shape and hangs from the top. Big enough to house 2 baby rats! I'm sure I'll be spending another 12 dollars and be building up another level in the very near future!

Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:20 am

hi! i'm brand-new to this forum but DEFINITELY not to ratties. i've had rats nearly steadily for the last 16 years. however, i've never made a diy cage before, and while i'm VERY good at judging cage size in pre-fab cages, i'm no good at deciding on this cage. i've got a little brown hooded girl named madeline who's still pretty young, but will still probably not be too large when she gets bigger, as she's both female, and from a line of generally small females. i can produce pictures on demand. as any rat mama, i've got a billion. Mr. Green

anyhow...

i just realised that i have this POTENTIALLY AWESOME shelf in my garage. it's got 9 individual cubbyholes that are 9'' tall, 7'' wide and 11'' deep.

now, here are my questions in order of importance:
question one:
my plan is to put hardware cloth across the front and back of the top two/top two/bottom three cubbyholes on the right and leave the two on the left open for rat-related items, like food, dry treats, out-of-cage/backup toys, and bedding. then i would take the divider shelves entirely out of the bottom row, leaving a 9''x22.5x11/2227sq.in. space, and take the middle divider shelf out of the middle row, leaving a 9x14.75x11/1460.25sq.in. space, and then leave the middle shelf in in the top to make two little cubbyholes of 693sq.in. each. then, the obvious ramping and whatnot to make all levels accessible. this makes 4306.5 square inches altogether. however, considering how it's divided up, would this be a comfortable amount of space?
according to http://www.kristinewickstrom.homestead.com/files/PanelApplet.html (the cage calculator), if i clear out all three cubbies on the bottom for her to have as one big level on the bottom, it says that that is enough room for 0.65 rats to live in. 2 cubbyholes is 0.42 rats, and one cubbyhole is .2 rats. everything all added up, that's just over one rat worth of space, and she's a female from a line of small females, so she probably will take up a little less room than the average size the cage calculator is working off of.

SO...assuming that i'm still good to go after question one...
question two:
this has been out in my garage, is painted with god only knows what kind of paint, and has been used to store things like insect poison in granule form. i don't entirely trust the paint to be rat-safe, even once all the nastiness has been taken off. so what i think would probably work best is to sand the whole thing down, repaint it whatever colour i want it, and then re-sand the paint out of the areas that madeline will actually be living in. so this is actually a two-part question.
one: do you think that will be good enough? a double sanding ought to get rid of everything questionable, especially once it's been cleaned well.
two: i DO plan to make removable litter pans for the floor, but i know wood soaks up odors like nobody's business. what is something rat-safe that i can seal the wood with?

also, just for information's sake: if it ends up being big enough, i plan on cutting out large "windows" in both sides of the bottom level, the right side of the middle level, and the right side and tops of the top level, and then covering those in hardware cloth so she's got plenty of open air and sunlight getting to her! can't have her in a big gloomy dark cage, no matter how neat it is. plus, i plan on eventually connecting those holes to the most awesome rat run in the universe! yay.

thank you to -everyone- who could help me answer these questions, especially if it leads to miss madeline having the super ratty palace i hope will be big enough for her. wink

Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:22 am

I am keen on building a cage for my rats and have a few ideas but I'm not sure what to use for the wire walls of the cage. I have heard hardware cloth suggested but I worry it is too fine and scratchy for climbing comfortably. Any ideas for an alternative material? Can you get the nice stuff they make commercial cages out of?

Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:52 am

eaker, I found such stuff in a little mom and pop hardware store near where my mom lives. They call it "rabbit fencing," its mesh is 1"x1/2", it's exactly what Martin's uses for their cages. I took it in and had it powder-coated and now the extension I built looks very much like the rest of the cage(a Martin's Chinchilla High-rise). It's also much sturdier than hardware cloth, and I've no worries about it collapsing. I'd suggest you try to find it. I don't think I'd bother much with hardware cloth, especially if you intend it as a stand-alone cage, and whatever you get, I suggest you have it powder-coated, as I've heard that galvanized surfaces start to smell and that if they chew on the galvanized it can lead to zinc poisoning. Good luck

_________________
Sarah
Gus, Electra and Lillie (cats)
Artemisia Serendipity Timoune Paikea Eowyn (RIP) Nimue Chrysanthemum Mozart, Elizabeth
Ruby Sunrise, Angelina, Madeleine, Claudia, and the Angels

Sun Mar 27, 2005 12:49 pm

I'm building a new wire part for the cage. It is quite large measuring 90 cm x 60cm x 45cm. The only wire I can use is a 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch wire mesh. It is plastic coated. The wire does tend to be quite flimsy. It holds itself, but if you lean on it it dents. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for making it more stable. I was thinking of making two wire parts instead, each half of the cage, then cut a couple of holes in the middle section so my rats can run to the other side. Any other ideas?

Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:40 pm

pocket is getting on in years and is starting to stubble a bit around the cage. i could move her into a good sized tank rather easily but she would be alone which she hasn't done since she was ababy and didn't do well then. she started to go through depressoin until i brough home her sister lyiint from a friend that couldn't keep her any longer. so really i'd rather not take her from the others but i don't want her to get hurt either in that tower of theirs. is there a way that i could just make the cage safer for her?

this is what the cage looks like right now:

i'm 5'3 1/2" and i'm the one standing beside it.

and here's a closer look at what i've recently done to help pocket out by not making her jump so high. in the orange bottomed cage there's a little hamster home (came with the first cage) underneath the hole so she doesn't have to jump as far down or up too but it keeps getting pushed around and knocked over.

pocket still has the desire to climb striaght up but perfers to walk if she had the choice. where all the cages are so different in heights and distance to the next hole store bought ramps are rather useless. so if anyone knows how i could make one it would really help me out if you could share. other then ramps and stragically placed houses i don't know what to do. i really would rather not take her out of the cage away from the others until her final couple days as i'd rather her not try to commit suicide again.

after i put in the plastic canvas she seems to be eating better and hopefully gaining some of her weight better. i'm looking into weight building diets right now to try for her and nazumi.

any advice you could give on how to make the cage safer and more user frienmdly for her would be much appricated by the both of us.

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mommy to:

1 human son: Corvis
1 feline son: Sesshoumaru
1 lost feline daughter: Snowball

Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:29 pm

a while ago i made a rat cage that is basically a wood frame with mesh wire stapled on. well, now it is starting to stinky (only 3 1/2 months old) i oviously need to build another rat cage but avoiding wood. but the problem is how do i build a cage without a wood frame? how will the mesh wire hold together with nothing to staple it too... and i doesnt bind and stay like that! maybe put it together with cage clips... but wouldnt i need a cage clip for every half and inch or so?

Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:33 pm

That's the trouble with wood. Sad

My guys have wooden chinchilla platforms and they get icky very fast.

You could used covered wood on a new one perhaps? Maybe with a laminate covering? Maybe there are some rat-friendly varnishes you could use?

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~