Anyone have an opinion on this as a rate cage for two rats? My son is interested in getting 2 rats as pets and this looks like a pretty decent deal. Other cages I’ve seen at either target.com or petco have been much smaller and more expensive.
It looks pretty good, especially for the price.
I would want to know whether it has a bottom wire floor. If it does, that should be removed before putting rats in it to prevent them from getting their feet wedged between the wire and the bedding. Then if the wire floor is removed, will that make it easier for the rats to escape?
(From the picture, it appears that there is no bottom wire floor. However, that raises the question (since the bedding tray appears to slide out sideways), how are the rats prevented from squeezing out past the tray?)
From the same site, this appears to be another photo of a white example. It does have a bottom wire floor. I still cannot tell whether it is high enough to be safe, making me a bit leery of that model for rats. (While rats do OK on wire floors on higher levels, they tend to have a propensity to trap and twist their feet and ankles when the floor is too close to the bedding below it.)
(Maybe another rat owner has had better luck, but I am not that eager to recommend this cage after seeing the set-up.)
(BTW, there are a lot of folks who oppose using wire floors on ANY level of a rat cage out of concern for trapped and twisted feet. They will buy a wire cage, remove all the flooring, and build separate flooring of plastic, vinyl, or other materials.)
I had that cage and although my rat’s feet didn’t tangle in the wires, it developed huge tumors on its feet (might have been abcesses; I don’t remember) as a result of the irritation from balancing on the wire, according to my vet.
You could probably do something cool and cheap by, for instance, putting down saran wrap on the bottom then filling it with that resin stuff so you had a nice hard floor. (Note that I just made that up, so no idea on the practicability. Particularly you would probably want to make sure that there was no chance it could end up being toxic either due to fumes or chewing.)
I had almost the exact same cage for my rat, although mine was blue and had the door on top, and I think that’s an excellent price. I also can’t get the shipping calculator working right now but make sure the seller is not ripping you off on shipping.
The main argument against wire floors seems to follow what wonderlust says; it is unlikely that the floor would catch their feet. The cage should not be a problem as long as you put a nice hard, unchewable board covering most of the bottom. My other rats also got sores on their feet but it may have been because the cage was a sort of galvanized steel, and this cage seems to be coated or painted and smooth on their feet. Also the bars seem close enough to reduce too much pressure on one spot of the foot. My cage was placed in a plastic cat litterbox-type pan and filled with shavings. The cage clipped on top with brackets.
The cage does seem a little small for two rats. If they are young, it should be fine for awhile, as long as you take them out to play frequently. You may however wish to buy a larger cage or aquarium later on.
As for saran wrap, I’d give it 2 hours before it is mostly shredded/ingested.
For pouring the resin into (i.e. forming a mold.)
For instance, if you dug a hole, put down tarp, and then filled it with concrete. You’re going to need pretty tough teeth to chew through the concrete before you get to the tarp.
Once again I’m pretty amazed at how much a response I can get on a topic as offbeat as this one!
This cage is 5.5 cubic feet, which I thought was more than enough room for two rats. I had read somewhere that rats need 2 cubic feet/rat. Was that bad information?
tomndebb - The second cage is actually a little different. The one you linked to is different and definitely has the wire mesh across the bottom. I blew up the image of the first one and it looks to me like the mesh stops halfway across the bottom. I’ll ask about that, though.
Shipping would be about $20 according to the calculator under the end-time, bringing the total to about $45.
My son always used aquaria for his rats.
You can always pick up a used 20 gal cheap (or free on trash day).
One problem I would foresee with that (any?) cage is containing the bedding.
Ah, I see. There shouldn’t be any problem there, as long as it is hard enough to prohibit chewing. Ceramic or hard plastic is much preferable to soft plastic for floor material and food bowls because it inhibits chewing.
In general, that might be true, although the size of the cage is vertical, so the two rats have less floor space. As I said it shouldn’t be a problem if you take them out enough to explore your house. Keep in mind that female rats tend to be smaller than males, and two males might have territorial issues. I don’t think I need to mention that one of each sex is a bad idea.
A cursory glance of online sites suggests that you won’t find a similar cage for much cheaper. I’d say to go for it, but ask any questions that you might have to the seller beforehand.
As most everyone else has said, as long as the bottom floor isn’t wire, it should be fine. One thing to keep in mind with that cage, though, is that cleaning it will be a major pain in the ass. While it looks like it has a pull-out try on the bottom (bonus!), the rats WILL pee all over the upper floors, and cleaning rat pee off of wire cages is hellish. Worth it, but hellish. I used to take my boys’ cage to the do-it-yourself car wash and hose it down with the high-power sprayer - a bit inconvenient, and I got quite a few stares, but it worked.
Personally, I would not recommend an aquarium. While they can be a lot easier to clean, the air circulation is very poor, and depending on the airflow of the room the rats can suffocate.
In any case, congratulations on your soon-to-be new family members. Rats are fantastic pets, and I miss my boys very much, Og rest their fuzzy little souls.