Cage: Old vs. New

I got a rabbit cage, and sort of converted it to a rat cage, but it didn't seem like my boy was enjoying it. I thought it was big and had a lot of space, but then I thought he might like to climb.
I've had a cage sitting in my garage for around 2 years, and thought that it might work better, so I redesigned it a bit, and added lots of levels and I think it looks okay.

I'm just wondering if it was a good decision to switch to the new cage, which is much taller than the other, but not nearly as wide.

Let me know which one you guys think is more appropriate.

Old cage:


New Cage:

What are the dimensions of each cage?

Here are a few pics of a rabbit cage I had Peter, Jacob, Artie, and Eli in years ago. Note the 12 inch diameter silent spinner. Adding a couple of shelves with corner litter boxes and hammocks really increased the space for them.

The second cage looks too small. You can add a few more platforms/shelves like SQ has shown. I've used the purple cage you have as a travel cage and just filled it with lots of different hammocks to add vertical space:

I put both dimensions in two different cage calculators.
The large rabbit cage is 20d x 17h x 28w - can hold up to 3 rats
The other one is 17.5d x 29h x 29w - Can hold up to 4 rats

So it seems that the second one consistently hold more rats than the rabbit cage.

The second cage is bigger than it looks. It's worth a shot, you have nothing to lose

Yeah I though the picture made it look a little small! Here is another picture of it next to my guitar. I think it makes it look more like it is supposed too:


I think I'll stick with this one for now, but keep the other one just in case. I don't mind switching back if I need too, because I get WAY to much enjoyment out of cage design

Thank you!

you also can put this cage on top of the rabbit cage, so theres even more space

i used to combine all cages to one big tower (but now i have a huge terrarium so i dont have to anymore )

I think they are both good actually.

I like them both...but I would use the second one. Looks like a very nice cage.