RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Sat Mar 20, 2004 3:10 pm

My huge new cage arrived yesterday! The baby boys are living in it at the moment, as they have the climbing (and bouncing) skills to cope with a cage like this.

You can see the boys in the top right hand corner, so you can see how big the cage is! They are only three months old though, the boys!

I have 2 custom designed hammocks on order from Acrorats to split te cage into two levels so they can't fall too far. Plus lots more stuff for them to curl up and sleep in. Then my girls and the neutered baby boys (when they're done) will all live there!

And here's a couple of pics of te boys asleep in the hammock that came with the cage. How cute are they?

Slartibartfast and Zaphod:

Then Zaphod woke up and wandered off, leaving Bart:

Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:55 pm

Awww....how cute!

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Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:07 pm

It looks brilliant! Where'd you get it from? I've gone right off my wire terenziani's, they're getting really hard to clean - this looks more like the ferplast types, which just get less icky somehow...

Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:54 pm

Nice cage! Is that the Ferplast Jenny? I was having a look at those the other day. What are they like to clean?

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P, Charlie and Snoopy

Sat Mar 27, 2004 1:49 pm

It's the furet Ferplast extra large (bigger than the Jenny and it has plastic coated cage bars which the Jenny doesn't have from memory), I got it here cos this was the cheapest place - cos it's on sale - that I found (free delivery!!!):

http://www.petcentreonline.co.uk/ecommerce/productdisplays/product.asp?pid=176

Although Acrorats do it fairly cheap! The Acrorats stuff hasn't arrived yet though. Sad

I now have six girls in it (Harley the biter and my five other healthy adult girls who can cope with the climbing). The boys have been neutered so as soon as they're ok they'll go in too!

Apparently the cage can fit 9 rats according to the calcolator. I cleaned it out completely the other day. The shelves just unscrew and you can wash them no problem. The clips to put the cage together do hurt your hands, but I'm sure you could probably take them off again (we're gonna hve to to move!). I don't yet know how to clean the wire sides and top. But the tray is SO easy! Just don't put chewy rats in it. I can't put Diego in there because he'd chew a hole in the base in 5 mins, so he and the adult boys are staying in the Terenziani.
The cage is fab though, I cleaned it and it was the first time I DIDN'T have scratches down my arms from the cage!

The annoying thing is it's a LOT deeper than the Terenziani so you do need extra floor space. And it's actually deeper than it is wide, because of where the doors on the cage are, so you need to measure up to make sure you have room for it! I just can't wait for the extra level hammock. That's going to make it perfect. Mr. Green

The top is a little flimsy too, so you can't put another heavy cage balanced on top of it. I've got my Ferplast retirement cage on top, cos it's wide enough to have the weight supported but don't assume you can stick anything on top there. Also, the doors are HUGE! The bottom door is the one I use, sitting on the floor. All my lot (with the exception of Harley) come running out en masse and it's hard to keep them in there! I think because of the width, I can drag the cage over to the bathroom and let out the whole lot in there, but just have the door open and the cage in the doorway so Harley can come out when she feels ready.

Sun Mar 28, 2004 6:47 pm

Many thanks, Labrat - that's really helpful. I'm sick of cutting my arms to ribbons on the Terenziani and I'm having a bit of a GMR attack right now... More floor space might be a problem though because our flat is so small. But plastic-coated bars would be better than galvanised.
What's the bar spacing like? Do you think it would be ok for baby ratties?

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P, Charlie and Snoopy

Tue Mar 30, 2004 3:21 pm

Ditto on the cutting up my arms - I look like I've done a round with a wild cat after cleaning my Moore.

Is the bar spacing the same as the standard Ferplast cages? If so, I found popcorn (2months old) sitting outside my bedroom this morning, as she appears to be quite adept at squeezing - ergo no use for babies!
I'm v interested in this cage though...

Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:09 pm

I've just checked and the spacing is 1.5cm, maybe a mm under. The other Ferplasts I have (indoor bunny type cages, the spacing is 2cm, which is probably too big for baby rats.

I haven't had baby rats, certainly not girls for ages. Don't think from memory anyway, they could squeeze through. The bit where to door clips onto the cage, it bend the wire down a bit so the gap is slightly bigger. But I think it'd be ok. Crossed Fingers