My Lovely Rats

Shy-Shy seems to be clear of his myco infection at last. The boys have grown a lot over the last few weeks and are looking more like feisty teenagers than fluffy babies. Their fur is more coarse and shiny (females have softer, sleeker fur than males and tend to be smaller).

Ten week old scary beasts!

I cleaned the rats’ cage out today while they slept in their carrier tank. They will be too big for it soon. When they finally got back in their home, they explored it with great gusto and excitement! I always make slight variations in the cage layout, because fancy rats are clever and seem to love to explore new things. I always put some nice tasty treats in there too to give them something inviting to do - eating (a rat’s favourite pastime!)

Ferplast Furet Extra Large cage. Roomy!

There are plenty of cages on the market for rats, and alot of breeders use large aviary-type cages. You definitely need a good-sized cage for rats, because they are very active and need plenty of stimulus (ie hammocks, tubes, ropes, ladders etc). I have a Ferplast Furet Extra Large ferret cage - it’s huge and has ample space for four male rats. You need to be careful of bar-spacing though when you are considering buying a ferret cage. Usually the spacing is far too wide (about 2.5cm) for baby rats or small adult female rats. However, for larger females or grown male rats they are wonderfully spacious. The Ferplast Furet E L has a much narrower bar-spacing - about 1.7cm which was perfectly fine for my male rats from 6 weeks old. It is so large I had to fill it with 3 corner shelves, a large ‘acroplatform’ from ‘Acrorats’ (a superb on-line shop selling made-to-measure sturdy hammocks, platforms etc.), hammocks and tubes etc. The rats love it! There are two large doors, so it’s easy enough to clean (especially if you’ve got orangutan long arms like me!). The only trouble I’ve had with the cage was that when the rats were more timid, it was difficult to get them out of it! If I got baby rats again (a distinct possibility!) I would get a smaller ‘nursery’ cage to start with (with bar spacing 1.5cm or less).

Today my rats have been mostly eating broccoli and porridge oats.

Tags: Toys and Games, Housing //