RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:45 am

	RachelW wrote:
	I LOVE the stockings!! That's SO cute!! I'm still not sure you need a longer litter pan - could you not just create a tunnel bridge between the two cages? If not, cut the adjoining sides off the litter pans and nail them both down onto a larger sheet of wood?

Yes, I could do the tunnel bridge and probably will...I was just wanting to combine the two into one huge cage.

And I didn't really want to do too much cutting and stuff, especially not cut the litter pan, because I'd like to have 2 cages again if I ever happened to need them. Like I said, I'm being difficult and very picky.

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Christy
RP Admin
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Frodo, Zorro, Erzulie, Maeve, Clara, Molly & Emily

Sun Feb 15, 2004 3:59 am

Ok, so just got done connecting the two cages together and decided to show these pics for anyone interested. There is also (of course) pics of the babies here too! Hope you like!

Here is the cages connected.

Here is the 2" Cold water PVC pipe (being specific for those who wanted to connect cages) that connects these two cages together!

Here is ALL three of them trying to drink out of ONE water bottle (there is more than one bottle in their cages). They were in a fish tank while I was connecting these cages and no water bottle for about 1/2 an hour, well OBVIOUSLY they think they were in the desert for a year, lol! Crazy ratties!

Here's silly Rizzo checking out the cage that he has never been in.

Here is the three of them in the fish tank awaiting the transport to the new cage!

Here's Talulah seeing what this thing is, they still haven't gone to the other side!

Here's Talulah, giving herself a bath after such a event happening, lol! Aint they CUTE!?!?!??!

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Kalie, Rizzo, Talulah and Sierra

Sun Feb 15, 2004 5:05 am

Maybe you could try putting a few tasty treats on the other side of the PVC pipe on the side they haven't gone to. (Something that smells goood), or don't put it in the pipe, just put it in the new cage, and if it smells good enough to them, they may go on over.

BTW, your girls are gorgeous!! I'm a sucker for siamese ratties!

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-Cori-

Sun Feb 15, 2004 5:08 am

Lol, I know its sooooooooo scary. I dont know what they are thinking, dont they want to run a lot more. Whatever they want to do is fine with me tho i guess.

Yeah wait till they get FATTER!!!! Then do it! Don't want any lose rats and have a rat epidemic as my co-worker says. Can you tell she doesn't like rats?!?!!??!??! Rolling Eyes

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Kalie, Rizzo, Talulah and Sierra

Sun Feb 15, 2004 12:28 pm

Okay, Kalie, you MUST post very specific instructions about exactly how you managed that connection! It looks wonderful. What adorable babies.

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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

Sun Feb 15, 2004 7:51 pm

Wait....Rizzo is a boy?!? And the others are girls? lol I'm missing something here.

I love those rat loaves you've got there!! lurve

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Laura (aka RATLOVER47)
My boys: Pokey and Pepper

Rest in peace little Pipster. I miss you more than anything.

Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:19 pm

RatLover, no Rizzo is a girl, did i post that she was a boy? No all my babies are girls so I dont have to go to the vet EVER again, unless one of them gets sick.

Kate-Very simple thing that I did, I PROMISE! All you do is go get 2" PVC pipe (I got cold water, but there is DWV which is a bit more expensive, I have no idea what the differences are but they look the same, lol) and take some heavy duty wire cutters. Put the PVC pipe up to one cage and mark on the cage right up next to the pipe. Cut where you marked it, best if done by a permanent marker, with the wire cutters then see if the PVC pipe fits in there, if it doesn't fit, look at which wire is keeping it from going in. Then, from inside the cage push the pipe through the hole after all measured out and put it up against the other cage to where you want it to connect to. Mark this other cage with the marker and cut the other cage. Once again put the pipe through the hole, making maybe some adjustments to the wire. Then at each end of the pipe put couplers/unions on (your hardware store will know what they are, if you dont) so the pipe doesn't slide in and out and then your rats would have FULL reign of the house, lol. At one end I just put a coupler that looks like this.

At the other end I put one that is a 90 degree angle one, so it touches the groud, for the to slide out of if they want to. This is what this looks like.

And this is what it looks like in between the cages.

And this is what i looks like from inside the cage looking into the pipe. OMG theres a rat in there, lol. By the way that is Sierra playing in there, they LOVE it, they were actually all playing in it last night when I went up there to play with them.

Sorry for all the pics, but just wanted to make sure that you understood and all you other people that want to do this. If you have any ?'s just PM me!

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Kalie, Rizzo, Talulah and Sierra

Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:44 pm

love that last pic! I just couldn't see how you got the wider ends in without mangling everything, I didn't know about the couplers. Excellent since that protects them from getting to the cut edges of the wire.

I'm off to Home Depot.

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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

Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:49 pm

That face peeking through in that last pic! Thud

Great job with cage joining - very effective!

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Linda and the RMDs

Many have forgotten this truth but you must not forget it. We remain responsible forever, for what we have tamed.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:10 am

Kate, the couplers aren't on their so there is no wider part of the pipe, you put the fitted couplers on there after you have the pipe connecting it. IF you need any more help, just PM me or email me, I think thats in my profile!!

I know, i was surprised that Sierra just sat there, linda, most of the time she would run right to mommy, but i am sure that she was trying to sleep and thinking "get outta here mom, I am tired"

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Kalie, Rizzo, Talulah and Sierra

Thu Mar 04, 2004 7:01 am

Well now that it's yard sale season, I'm going to be seriously looking for book cases and dressers to transform into cages. My only concern is with the wood. Will they chew it? If they do, will it be enough for them to get out? And if they do start chewing, is there something I can do to stop it?
Also, I'll be getting those sticky tiles to lay down on the floors, walls, and ceiling (just in case wink

), but will urine be able to soak in?

If this will end up being too much, I'm just going to splurge and buy the martin's R-699 cage. I mean, what's 200 dollars for a life of easy cleaning and spacious living for my ratties?

Although, if I don't have to pay 200 dollars, I won't wink

So what do you think?

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In memory of Riley, the bestest, most squishiest ratty anyone could ever hope for

Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:12 am

My rats have never chewed their Grotto style cage. They chew the ladders, and the little ledges they have in it, but not the cage itself.

I love the fact that I can just get a bucket of soapy water and wipe the cage out. I use towels on the floors, and they soak up most of the rat pee. (If you have towels, you'll need at least two sets, obviously).

The only flaw I find in my cage, is the lack of places to hang hammocks etc. It's not too hard to drill a few more holes chuck in a couple of hooks and hang more stuff though.

The trap door is VERY handy too.

Best of luck.

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Ree (#2) and her Rodents....
Brac, Quinn and Fagan <(^_^)>

Thu Mar 04, 2004 11:29 pm

my old timers are in one of those one level indoor rabbit cages. They were about thirty pounds from a wyevale garden center. they have a plastic bottom, a door at the front and a large door inj the top. or you could buy a tank? if they are not really climbing they don't need bars right??? My young girlies are in a tall terenzianni cage which I have converted for one of my oldies. The cage came with a removable wire bottom which I placed in the shelf slot so that only that bootom section is available. This also came in really handy when they were really little as they were a bit dense and kept falling down as they slept by the slope!!!

Tue Mar 16, 2004 7:52 am

I use an aquarium under the two cages as my "connector".

I've also heard of people using ferret tubes/tunnels to connect a couple doors, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Tue Mar 16, 2004 8:17 am

I have not connected my Martins cage, but I have connected my two superpet cages. Maybe this can help give you some ideas.

Here are the two cages stacked one on top of the other. This way only uses one base tray.

Here is the current set up. The two cages are connected with a ferret tunnel.

Better view of the tunnel.

The tunnel can cause some problems. I had a similar set up in the past with two homemade cages connected by a tunnel. The rats I had in those cages constantly had dominance issues and control of the tunnel (only way to and from each side) became a constant battle. I have more rats in this set up than I had in the home made one and they all get along great. No problems with who controls access to each side of the cage. How well this works depends a lot on the personality of the rats involved.

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paisley

Spike, Diamond, Elphaba, Rose, Octavia, A Cappella, & Nocturne

the cats: Trip & Phlox

the rabbit: Ripley

Tue Mar 16, 2004 9:53 am

Paisley, where did you get the white square panels?? I want some!

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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

Tue Mar 16, 2004 6:44 pm

Oh my gosh you all! What great cages!!
Paisley, did you use existing doors or cut them yourself? If you cut them how did you make the edges safe and secure the tunnel?

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SweetPea, Fiona, Daisy, Ari, Buddy, Jake (and whichever babies don't get adopted soon!) Henry- we miss u.

Tue Mar 16, 2004 8:47 pm

	sylviaszoo wrote:
	Oh my gosh you all! What great cages!! Paisley, did you use existing doors or cut them yourself? If you cut them how did you make the edges safe and secure the tunnel?

I had both of the Superpet cages left from previous rats who could not live togther. One of the cages is an older style with small "doors" near the top on the short sides of the cage. Look closely at the second picture, just under the pink house. You can see some extra white wire. that is the open door. The other cage also came with pre-cut holes, but no doors. It came with a million feet of ferret tubbing that was supposed to wrap around the outside of the cage. Fun but too much work to take apart, clean, and put back together.

Superpet makes connectors that snap onto their cages (fit opening for open holes and small doors) and fit their tunnels. I know a lot of folks think this brand is hard to clean, but I find it easier than my Martins. Superpet makes all of their stuff modular, so redesign is easy. I could easily have 2 seperate cages again if needed and all the tunnels, shelves, etc. are interchangable.

When I did a homemade version of this, I was not as happy with the results. The tunnel was always a little loose on one end, and it was very hard to take apart and put back together. I always had to wait to clean cages until Nivek was home, because I could not do it myself.. I don't know if the Superpet connector would work on your cage (it does not fit my Martins), or if you could find something similar in the plumbing department.

Kate-

The pannels came with the cages I bought. I know that Superpet does sell replacement parts, so you might be able to order just the pannels. A quick tip: Their service people can not do anything without a cage style #. They have no idea what their cages look like. I once tried to order extra lid latch clips, and finally gave up (notice one cage lid is held on with office clips?) At that time, they only used one type of wire, so all clips would have fit all cages. I could not convince the service person to order them without the exact style number of the cage. Check out the ferret store, they have a bunch of their style cages with dementions listed. They do make a "rat sized" wire, but only in smaller dimensions.

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paisley

Spike, Diamond, Elphaba, Rose, Octavia, A Cappella, & Nocturne

the cats: Trip & Phlox

the rabbit: Ripley

Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:10 pm

Here is an email I recieved from Martin's regarding connecting the two cages.. I think I will get some of those tunnels as mentioned above then also buy a few new doors from martins to have on the cages where the tunnels will be that way I can close them when not using them.. but.. I do like those end tunnel things too.. wow.. what CREATIVE members you all are!!

Quote:

Dear Kimberly,

Thank you for writing and inquiring about connecting your 2 existing cages.

We've helped quite a few customers with connecting cages. We have an many ferret owners who use tubes to connect two existing cages. We cannot supply the tube but we can certainly help you with the doors. Doors with door latches installed are $ 5.00 each.
A door liner would cost $ 1.00. It's best to purchase your tube first and know how large of an opening you need and we can match the doors up to what you need. We need to know the exact door opening size. We make the doors alittle larger to overlap.

The hard plastic tubes work nice. Rats may be able to chew their way out of a dryer vent tube.

We've also had customers change the top panel of their existing large cage and install the smaller cage on top of the larger cage. We suppy a 1/2" x 1/2" floor wire with ramp. The top panel of your larger cage is removed and replaced with the floor wire. The ramp will lead down into your cage. Your smaller cage is permanently installed on top of your larger cage. You will have an offset since the cages are not the same size.

A floor wire is $ 10.00. A ramp is $ 3.00.

Please let me know if I can answer any more questions for you or if we can be of any help.

Thank you!

Diana Martin
Martin's Cages, Inc.
Manufacturer of Quality Pet Cages
http://www.martinscages.com

_________________
Kimberly, rattie mommy to:
Tuff Rat, Baby Bruce , Leo, Junior, Frank and FLASH
Ratties in Heaven: Dreidel and Dippy
I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy. ~ Dory (Finding Nemo)

Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:41 am

I use 3" dryer ducting. It isn't pretty, and you can't really see them inside (so there's lots of possibilities for hiding), but it's cheap and it works really well. One 90 degree elbow costs $1.97 at Home Depot and the accordion flexible tubing is $6 for 8 feet. They can chew the accordion tubing, but it takes forever. I either cut a hole the size of the ducting or put the ducting through the feeding door of the birdcage. To secure it, I use a cable tie to tie the sliding door down as hard as it needs to be. To cover the holes (if needs be), I have bought a few cheap cages at thrift stores (that are generally too small for them anyway) and take them apart for their doors. Then, I can cobble those doors on as needed. I'm all about the cheap

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 Mar 18, 2004 3:49 pm

On an old rat cage I used to have some pvc pipe running from inside out the side at the top and down and back in at the bottom. I found that either drilling a hole in the pipe and putting a bolt on each side of the cage wire can hold it in place. Or you can drill a couple of small holes and thread plastic coated wire through then and twist it to secure it to the cage. Also some pipes have sockets or joints at one end that are wider than the pipe itself. If you thread that through from the inside of one cage if your hole is the right size it won't push through then you only need to secure one end.

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Iain- mobile rat carrier and bed
Whendi- Delicious
JJ- Minxlet
Lister- Monkey
Stevie- The Wonder Rat
Zaphod- Wannabe Boss
Bart- Humungous - Angel rat

Tue Apr 13, 2004 1:07 am

There are three good plans here: http://www.ratfanclub.org/helpinfo.html

I used the cement tub plan, it's very big, it can house up to 5-6 rats and the materials cost about $50. A pre-made cage this size would probably cost at least twice that much.

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"Hello, friends. I am a perfectly normal human worm-baby." - ZIM

Tue Apr 13, 2004 3:27 am

I'm currently building a home made cage of my own that's rather big (it's at least as high as the Martin's R-695) out of wire shelving unit. It's not yet finished, but here's what it sort of looks like

I'm using the instructions on the following website http://www.geocities.com/jmorneweck/camelot.html to build it. So far, it's only cost me about $30, but I still have to put the top on and add shelves inside so it might be a little more than that.

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-----------------Oo~<>~oO-----------------
Leiana
The boys: Skunk and Ferdinand (Piggies)
Currently Ratless Sad

-----------------Oo~<>~oO-----------------

Tue Apr 13, 2004 4:04 am

I have a Martin R-695 (martins is well worth the price considering there quality and construction - http://www.martinscages.com/ ) I have also made 2 home-made cages. I made them out of wire fencing that you can find at like lowes, home depot, or a home inprovment store. Make sure it is metal, and if it is a different color besides silver, it will be a lot better protected against "the elements" of rats. Those rolls will cost under 10$ each for like a 5 foot by 3 foot roll. You will have to flatten the roll. Then you just cut those sheet in to 4 equal sides, and then once you have them put together like a square you can cut the peices off of the top to make a top. then you can put it in a plastic tub, or something else. ( It doesnt make sence, but you have to have some construction skills it should be easy esspecially if you are creative. If you are seriously interested you can e-mail me.)

~I hope I helped and remember to be creative!

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~Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stella Yum

Rhiann

Aryanna

Liberty

Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:55 pm

This saturday I will be going to home depot to buy the materials I need to construct a rat cage of sorts. the entire cabinet will measure 3' wide by 6' tall by 2' deep. now, on the bottom will be a 2' tall x 3' wide x 2' deep storage area for food and bedding ect... like a mini cabinet. the top portion will be 4' tall x 3' wide x 2' deep (roughly 24 cubic feet of space) is that sufficient for 2 adult rats? mine are still babies.. but Im planning ahead. Thats my first question.

My next question is about in cage materials, The cage will be made of a nice stained wood, wana make it look like a nice antique cabinet or something. The inside of the cage like the walls I was thinking... some sort of linolium (do rats chew this?) (will the chew the wood walls?) Like can I just seal the wood? (Oak BTW) or should I put some sort of rat-proof lining in there? and what kind of walking surfaces do you suggest? I was thinking a mixed.. bedding on one level, powder coated wire floors for most maybe a tile level as well? Suggestions please!!! TIA!!!

-Jaysin