Number of rats to keep in a large cage?

[NicodemusRattus]

Well, I'll start off by saying I currently have a lot of rats. I am NOT a hoarder lol... we brought home 2 females about 2 months ago, and they both *surprise, surprise* came home pregnant. It's been difficult finding homes for the babies since we refuse to give them to petshops which might sell them as snake food. So far, we have found only one potential home for 2 or 3 of the boys. So that leaves 14-15 babies to find homes for, or make accommodations for. The boys are separated from the females, and there's 8 boys total... or 5-6 if the potential home thing goes through. I need to look into getting new cages, since the cages they are in currently are ok, but will probably be too small when they are fully grown. Same thing with the girls, And including the mommies there are 11 girls. I need help deciding how many rats can comfortably live in each cage. We just bought a large cage from Petsmart, I think the brand is "All Living Things" and cage is called "Deluxe Rat Home" or something. Anyone here familiar with it? I'm trying to figure out how many of the babies can live in a cage like this when fully grown. Is it big enough to keep 6 males or 11 females(yea I know, I'll probably need a MONSTER sized cage for the girls), and is it alright to have this many adults in one cage? I'm wondering how aggressive the males would be toward eachother when they're adults? So yea, I'll have to buy more cages in addition to the Petsmart cage. Does anyone have an idea about how many more cages/ how large of a cage would I need? and would the Petsmart cage be better for the males or the females? I'd really like to find more homes for some of these babies, they are around 8 weeks-ish, but it's hard to find homes for rats in the area I live. Petshops aren't an option, and I even contacted a few adoption places so far, but none of them are very close to my area and haven't really offered much help.

 

[Cinderwolf]

Do you have the dimensions of the cage? I cant find them online. however usually those type cages only hold 3-4 rats.

For 11 rats I suggest a double critter nation ( and thats at pretty much capacity) 6 could technical fit in a single but it would be very crowded. Best bet would be a double(or triple) cn for the girls and a double for the boys if you can afford that or you may have to split up the groups into smaller cages. a martins RUDD cage may be worth looking into as well, not sure the price of martins though.

if you google rat cage calculator you can find a bunch where you just plug in the dimensions and they tell you the estimated amount you can fit. most are pretty accurate. As a general rule of thumb its 2 cubic feet per rat. More being better of course

 

[dspch911]

I have 2 double critter nations - 5 boys in one and 7 boys in another

 

[SQ]

I would suggest 2 double critter nation cages.
They can each hold up to 10 rats.

many people on here, including myself have Midwest critter nation cages.
They can be purchased online.

 

[NicodemusRattus]

Thanks for the feedback guys c: I just looked at the cages online, and the double critter nations do look like they'd be the perfect type of cages to get for them.

on a side note, when the boys reach maturity will it be ok for them to be in the same cage (as long as it's a large one like the critter nation) I've kept 2 or 3 boys at a time before, but this will be my first time with having 5-8 boys in one cage. They won't get too aggressive with eachother will they? 4 of the boys are Aurora's and 4 are Zuki's. They've basically grown up together and seem more than content. I think they'd be bummed out if I took any of them away from eachother right now lol.