How many rats do you have?

Heyo everyone!
I recently adopted some baby boys, Theo and Jamison, from someone who had rescued their mom from a hoarding situation, and then ended up with a full litter!
They're about eight weeks old now, and going into their brand new, huge cage that I shelled out to get them! It's a Prevue Fiesty Ferret cage, with two levels and two platforms, and all this space, and I was wondering how many rats the other users have on here!
I've briefly considered expanding my little herd, and especially now that I have considerably more room, but I was wondering if it would be better for my boys to be surrounded by more rats? I don't want them to be all alone in such a huge cage with only the two of them, and I purchased fourteen pounds of the Teklad growing blocks that I'm sure could feed more, but my boyfriend would need some convincing haha.
So yeah! Feel free to show me your babies, and especially your cage setup as I'm still trying to think of things to fill it with! <3

I liked having 4 in the double critter nation. That was perfect.

I'm thinking four would be perfect, if we can find two more little boys somewhere!
They'd all be quite young too, so I'd hope that would help the introductory process. My boys are pretty tight knit, but I like them to be able to have more friends than just each other!

Some pictures of my boys! The dark one is mine, Theo, and the light one is my boyfriend's, Jamison <3

We have five spread between two DCNs. Our relatively well-behaved ladies, Raven and Cleopatra; Rook, the Pushy Space-Potato; Chess, he of the Kleenex-tough constitution and an opportunistic tail-biter, and Milo, who is afraid of rats.

Rook and Milo were recently neutered, with the eventual idea being that they and the ladies would share a DCN. So far, getting folks to not hide from or cactus at each other has been less than successful. We'll keep trying.

The most we've had at one time, Hannah's surprise passengers notwithstanding, was ten. Five is currently our absolute upper limit.

Oh my goodness, your boy who is afraid of other rats! That's super cool though, I wish you the best of luck in getting them all in one cage
I've also GOT to ask - what are those purple and blue plastic looking hammocks?? I've seen a lot of people using them, but I can't for my life find them for sale anywhere!

Their new cage just arrived about two hours ago, so we put it together, threw the stuff we have for our boys in, and they're so so happy now!
We didn't want the poor babies to have to walk on those horrible bars that the platforms are made of, so we cut cardboard out from the box it came in, and it's all better!

Very cool. I also really like the nesting box you have in there.

Thank you! It's actually from a toy my baby brother had, it's supposed to be a toolbox or something I think?

Since these pictures, I've added a hammock that I made, but they won't even go near it! They're very new to all of the space and being able to climb and stuff, so I'm sure they'll come round eventually

Very sweet! Currently, I have 4 elderly rats in a DCN and I find it absolutely perfect. I have had up to 9 and it was great but lots of cleaning.

MarleyBear said:

Oh my goodness, your boy who is afraid of other rats! That's super cool though, I wish you the best of luck in getting them all in one cage
I've also GOT to ask - what are those purple and blue plastic looking hammocks?? I've seen a lot of people using them, but I can't for my life find them for sale anywhere!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Chess will continue to have his own space, but if we can get the other four friendly enough, they'll occupy a full tower.

The purple and blue thing? You mean in my profile pic? That's a Critter Space Pod. You can order them from Flower Town Chinchillas and probably from a few other places. They're about $12 CAD.

I have 13 now. Nine share the triple critter nation I have set up. Four are in a Prevue rat and chinchilla cage, but they're little right now. I'll have to get them a bigger set up as they get bigger.

I love each and every one of my 13 and I don't regret a one, but I think 5 is actually the ideal number at a time. At the moment, it seems like my whole life is picking up rat poop, and I do laundry for their bedding more often than mine.