RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:33 am

Well, I finally took it upon myself to upgrade Cinder's living quarters a bit. Before she was living in a somewhat smallish wire cage that was a convenient size and couldn't be easier to clean. For a while I've been wanting to move her into the large Martin's R-690, which has been vacant since Nim and Tiri passed. The only thing holding me back was the difficulty I always had cleaning the cage. Whenever the rats peed on the top shelf they'd do it with their rear ends smushed into the corners, causing the pee to shoot out of the cage onto nearby walls. Otherwise it would drip down to the bottom of the wires and proved very annoying and difficult to get off. Needless to say it was pretty difficult keeping it adequately clean enough that it didn't stink and the rats were happy.

I managed to solve both of those problems by using some vinyl sheeting (the stuff they put on carpets to keep them clean) that has little pegs on one side and a smooth surface (it does have little shallow grooves for better grip) on the other side. I had to completely take apart the cage, which I had put together with those evil metal rings (those were a PAIN taking off), in order to thoroughly clean it. I tried using the lemon juice/baking soda mix (found here on RP wink

)to get off the pee stains, but it only worked so much. There are still some gross looking pee stains on it, but at least it's clean pee now. I put the cage back together with cable ties (another method found on RP) and adapted the rug lining to fit into the cage, which worked rather nicely.

Here are some pictures of the modified cage (before all the fun stuff got added):

My dad gave me his old bathrobe which I promptly cut up and made 4 hammies and many fun little fabric scraps for her so she wouldn't have to walk on plastic the whole time.

I think she's enjoying this

Now I need to find her some boxes to hide in and maybe some fun toys!

I must say, you guys are certainly inspiring me to become a better rat owner (not that I was a "bad" owner in the first place). Since I've been a part of this forum I've already upgraded her food to Harlan Teklad and Suebee's mix, gotten her on medication for the very slightest of sniffles, better rat-proofed my room for more free-ranging time, and now spent almost an entire day and a LOT of effort and hard work into perfecting this new cage.

Of course...now she is one little rat in one heck of a big cage and I can feel the GGMR starting to seep into my brain... Oh boy I can't wait 'til summer!

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~Mikaela and the RitterRatten~

Blaze~Shadow~Luna~Chinchilla~Malt~Merry~Pippin~Nim~Tiri~Cinder

Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:35 am

Why wait t'ill summer? Lol

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Loving Mum to my rattie boys, Zipper and Ty
Bestest Bud to Milly, the greatest horse ever

Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:43 am

That is a beautiful cage! I am jealous....

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~~Dawn~~

Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:03 am

Well I would get more now....but I'm on winter break from college at the moment and going back the 17th. It wouldn't be fair to bring new ratties into the house only to abandon them a week later. Quite frankly if I had my way I'd stay home from school and get the rats instead Rolling Eyes

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~Mikaela and the RitterRatten~

Blaze~Shadow~Luna~Chinchilla~Malt~Merry~Pippin~Nim~Tiri~Cinder