RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:39 pm

Thankies:) I have two layers of thick fleece on the floor and stuffed it under the cage bars. They love it, so far:) Will switch the boys cage over in the next day or so, I think. I'll have to change the boy's cage more often as they have a smaller cage. I plan to just stick my head in the cage, everyday (great mental picture, eh?) and check on the smell. Will save a lot of money on bedding, this way. I put some of the left over fleece in the girl's chinchilla house and found Esie had pulled the cloth outside and was hiding under it. So cute

By the way, if you guys are looking for cheap bedding, I found fleece blankets 50x60 inches at the Dollar Store for $3. It's not the thick fleece, but it's large enough to be doubled over in some cages. Just make sure you cut the string off that goes around the edges. It's just decorative, anyway.

_________________
My zoo: Link, Cyrano de Bergerat, Pipsqueak and the girls Harley, Kira and Esie<:8 )~
Also, Arwen the garter snake, Merry the beta, 2 fantail goldfish, 4 applesnails (r.i.p. pinky), 3 cory cats and Evie, the Jack Russell Terrier.

Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:24 am

Yeah, I put the cloth under the bars for them. It got annoying though, because my parents made me soak it in bleach, and rinse it before I could put it in the washer, but with YN all I do is dump it.

They did like having cloth bedding/litter though.

_________________
Rosie

* * *

I miss you Tut, Goldy, and Raoul Angel rat

Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:13 pm

I hear you, there. My dad gets mad when I don't shake all the aspen out of their bedding before plopping it in the washer. That's one advantage of switching to all cloth. That and no more clumps of aspen tossed out of my girl's cage. They loved pushing it out of their cage and onto the floor. Thankfully, we have tile in most of the house. Makes it a lot easier to clean.

_________________
My zoo: Link, Cyrano de Bergerat, Pipsqueak and the girls Harley, Kira and Esie<:8 )~
Also, Arwen the garter snake, Merry the beta, 2 fantail goldfish, 4 applesnails (r.i.p. pinky), 3 cory cats and Evie, the Jack Russell Terrier.

Wed Nov 23, 2005 6:41 pm

Yeah, they love to throw out all of there Yesterdays News, it was a pain when we had carpet, but now that we have linolium it is much easier.

I am glad that they are enjoying there bedding

_________________
Rosie

* * *

I miss you Tut, Goldy, and Raoul Angel rat

Tue Nov 29, 2005 12:13 am

So I just went to Home Depot today and bought some lino for the rat cage. The floors are wire (all of the levels) and although I probably won't lino the entire thing I'd just like to give them some space to rest their feet and be comfortable. Does anybody know if I wipe it down every day will the lino absorbe urine?

_________________
*Oliver & Dodger*

Tue Nov 29, 2005 4:23 pm

I've used lino before, and I was wiping it down twice a day (but I had 8 rats not very litter trained) and it did get pretty stinky after a bit. Long term wasn't so much a problem (it was easy enough to either take out and soak or chuck if it got too stinky) but short term it annoyed me that urine would puddle.

I'd wipe it down every day and give it a thorough washing once a week or so - that should help.

_________________
Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Tue Nov 29, 2005 5:53 pm

Yeah, I have two peices of linoleum in my cage, and I wipe it down everytime Im in the room. Its super easy to just swipe around in there when you are petting them, and it keeps the bedding in the bottom cleaner, and it keeps the babies off of the bars. Just leave a square block of wires open (preferabbly under the water bottles so any dripping can go down to the bedding) and that way when you have poop or old food on the tile, you can wipe it towards the bars and let it fall down into the bedding.

It works great for us!

_________________
Megan and the Hyper Hoppers. Blueberry and Butterfly, Naked Evee, and Chii.

Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:38 pm

Thanks!

_________________
*Oliver & Dodger*

Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:50 pm

While surfing for a local supplier of bedding I came upon http://www.ecobed.co.uk/, which is exactly what I'm looking for - but they only sell in pallets - I have emailed them to ask for a price of a single 22kg bale, and said that if they sell seperately there may be other local Norfolk rat owners who would be interested in buying from them. Not found any other Norfolk suppliers yet but will keep you posted if I do!

Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:28 am

edit: I was commenting on a cute little creature on page 1 of this discussion (oops) Embarassed

_________________
my rats: Bunny and Rex
missing: Ralph, Trevor, Mouse and Tariq
my cats: Meg, Minky and Molly

Sun Dec 04, 2005 4:57 am

The top 3 levels of the girls' cage are covered in Lino. I find it very easy to keep clean and I prefer them walking on it rather than on wires. Because there is mesh underneath, it's actually nice and springy so I don't have any worries about their feet.

I wipe it daily and do a thorough clean once a week. I must be lucky because whilst they poop in the corners, I rarely get any puddles! I'm down to 3 now but when I had six girls in there I had to wipe it 2 or 3 times a day to avoid funkiness LOL

Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:06 am

I have wooden levels I made, they have self adhesive lino floor tiles on them, and I love them! They seal the wood, and I can just wipe them down easily whenever I'm talking to them. The girls leave puddles, but the boys only leave afew dribbles as they are more litter trained!!

FD

_________________

Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:13 am

So far so good. I do think I'll invest in a couple of those litter boxes that you stick in the corner as most of their raisins are in one specific corner.

Thanks for all of the advice!

_________________
*Oliver & Dodger*

Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:01 pm

	Sparrow wrote:
	I use newspaper and change it every day. Usually I just wipe the bars down with a baby wipe (they're seldomely dirty). If you stay on top of it (change the paper every day to every other day) it is very nice.

Would newspaper make them sneeze or is the ink not good for them? I was going to do this when my new cage comes, as it has a wire floor with a removable tray underneath, but I just want to keep the wire floor from getting pee-corroded (even though I'll cover it with plenty of EcoBed). The shelves in my new cage will be bare wood that I'll varnish then cover with fabric, and I found these cuttlefish clips on eBay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7729150429 that will hopefully help to keep it in place.

Also agree on taking a few mins each day to wipe the bars down near the grottiest areas - will save an eventual build up of stinky stuff? Ratties like to chase the cloth around the bars as you wipe too Mr. Green

Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:11 am

Newspaper is fine as long as the ink is vegetable based, and it's unlikely to make them sneeze as it's not dusty or scented. It does need frequent changes, as it's not that absorbant, and obviously ammonia build up can make them sneeze too. I believe that in the UK and US, the vast majority of newspapers are printed with vegetable based inks (usually soy).

If you have pale ratties, you might find that the ink can make their fur look a bit grubby after a while, too.

_________________
Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:09 pm

Hello, im getting a new cage for my rats, from martins. what should i put, if anything on the bottom so they don't hurt themselves on the half-inch spaceing? thanks

Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:06 pm

If you're getting a cage from Martin's, then there should be no grate on the bottom. It comes with a plastic pan, and that is the bottom of the cage. By the way, order a powder-coated cage- much better durability and it won't soak up the urine smell.

_________________

Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:28 pm

Have a read back through this sticky for flooring help.

_________________
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

Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:14 pm

my cage does not have shelves ,so my cage has a big hammock that goes end to end that draps over their house where they think that can hide at -lol-. but anyway i would defintley say do not get carefresh it makes my rats sneeze a lot so i switched to Cell-Sorb-Plus. and about newspaper doesn't it smear ink on ur rat's feet? is the ink toxic? Is it washable on white fur?

Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:16 pm

i have a S.A.M ferret-guinea pig-rabbit cage, but it's holes are not 2 big or 2 small.

Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:35 pm

I have a quick question - not sure if it's already been answered or not but it's a hassle searching through this sticky for a particular question - sorry if I'm repeating! I'm going to move my girl into a bigger cage that I had the boys in until they passed. It is a Martin's R-690. Now, there were several issues with that cage which is why I've waited so long to move Cinder into it. The main issue was the pee. My boys had a bothersome habit of backing up into the sides on the top shelf and then let it all out, creating a lovely yellowish waterfall streaming OUT of the cage. When they peed inside the cage it would collect on the bottom of the wire shelving and made really disgusting coagulated clumps that were very hard to clean off. My plan to correct this is to get some sort of plastic material, sort of like what a child's place mat would be made out of, and fix that to the wire and then give it a little lip that will bend up against the side of the cage and prevent pee from being shot out of the cage and onto the rug/walls. My question is: do you think this would work and are there any materials I should watch out for/not use? Do you think my girl would just rip this to shreds?

Another thing that bugged me about the cage was how difficult it was to give it a really thorough cleaning, but I think that would be better addressed in a different sticky.

_________________
~Mikaela and the RitterRatten~

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

Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:44 pm

i would use that studd people put on bird cages to keep them from thowing out food. but only put where needed, they might or might not chew on it here and there though.

Tue Jan 10, 2006 5:41 am

I found this great stuff to put on top of wire flooring - it's smooth on one side and has little pegs a 1/2 inch apart on the other side. The pegs will go face down onto the 1/2 inch space wire flooring so that a peg is in the midde of each space, which will help keep it in place, and the smooth part will be what Cinder will be walking on. Is there any problems with using vinyl products in rat cages? Is it ok if she chews on it at all? Just figured I'd check just to be safe before I try using it.

_________________
~Mikaela and the RitterRatten~

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

Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:31 am

It should be ok, as PVC is often used in toys and to coat cage bars. What is this product usually used for? The only problem I could see would be if it's coated with something that could be harmful, but otherwise, it should be ok.

_________________
Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:58 am

It's meant to go on top of rugs to prevent them from getting dirty, the pegs are supposed to dig into the carpet to keep it in place. It doesn't have too much written on the package. I think it will work rather nicely in the cage

_________________
~Mikaela and the RitterRatten~

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