Chelipepper
Well-Known Member
There are lots of different cages and ditto for toys, bedding, food, etc U will undoubtably find what works right for u, but if youre looking for out of the box suggestions -here are some of mine :
1. Bedding - DONT use pine or cedar, they can be toxic to your ratties. Newspaper and newspaper products are rat friendly but dont do much in the way of odor control and can become saturated with urine. Same goes for just about everything that comes in a bag and is fluffy, puffy and multicolored. The harder pelleted bedding can be tough on rat tootsies..my suggestion is to either go with a corn-cob or corn-coblike bedding (kaytee soft sorbent)and add a little of the crinkled paper bedding so they can nest if they like. If u have easy access and dont mind laundering, fleece makes a nice cage bottom liner too (remember to factor in time and work for fleece since u will have to change the cage at least twice a week if u fleece. Daily shake-outs of solid waste helps keep the cage clean tho.)
2. Odor Control DONT add any type of chemical odor control to your bedding - IF and only IF they are in an open cage and not an aquarium type set up, u can toss in some crushed dried rosepetals or even some dried lavendar buds (Which both can be purchased in bulk from a soapmaking company called Wholesale Supplies Plus for a verrrry reasonable price) DO buy one of those lovely automatic scent sprayers but make sure it is far away from the ratties and pointed away from them ..pick up some Odor Neurtralizing spray from Lysol to go into your automatic sprayer (Lysol brand cans will also go into the Glade Sprayers , same goes for Air Wick) Set your sprayer to go off every 30 mins and u have 2 months of "Ahhhhhh" Remember to do a daily or at the most every-2 day cleaning of solid waste and remove any uneaten fresh foods ie fruits and veggies daily from the cage. Once a month give your ratties a bath -especially your boys :lol:
3. DO buy a dustbuster - it makes picking up kicked out corncob and tossed out seeds so much easier.
4. DO buy an inexpensive small cage for official cage cleaning days - it makes life so much easier in keeping the ratties in one place and seriously cuts down the chance of "oops" litters if u have more than one gender of rats. They double nicely as 'hospital' cages and are also a comfortable carrier.
5. DO make sure your rat has a rattie friend .. rats are social and need the company of other rats for play, grooming and socialization. Make sure u are keeping it to same sex pairs-even very young rats can breed.
6. DO make sure your rattie has places to climb, sights to see and things to do. Rats are very curious and easily bored :shock: Give them hammocks and ledges to make sure their cage is multileveled and they have places to explore and hang out. DO make sure u cover any bar-like ledges with some plastic canvas so your babies dont develop bumblefoot..For extra ledging, u can invest in some snap on gutter protectors (Sweer makes a very nice brand that a lot of hardware stores carry -they are just the right size for ledges and can easily be connected to cage bars via plastic tie wraps) U can also invest in a rabbit or ferret corner litter pan that can hang on the top levels of your cage - the ratties love to use it as a bed and if u are lucky and can get the one from SuperPet that has the wire bar grating on it (they call it a litter filter), u can take that, put some plastic canvas on it and tie wrap that sucker up to give your babies another corner ledge.
7 DO make sure u have the name of a good "exotic" pet vet BEFORE your pet gets sick. Rats metabolisms are very fast and they can be taken down very quickly by an illness.
8. DO make sure u do some homework on food for your rat. Suebee has a wonderful recipe for a food blend that u can google-up. My rats love it :happydance: There are also other great nutritional blends of food out there that u can whip up for your rat, which when u add some fresh veggies, fruits and some occasional cooked meat and pasta -will make sure your pet is healthy, happy and unbored. DONT give into the temptation to overfeed your ratties sweet tooth. Keep the chocolate to yourself (and beware peanut butter, your baby can choke on it if its not mixed with something else) DO get into the kitchen and make/bake some of your rattie treats! u will kno exactly whats in them and i swear your ratties will appreciate them even more than the store bought kind -same goes for whipping up your own rat recipe of food .. Mine do -
PS Rats love mealworms -as in eating them. Dont overdo it tho as u want to watch the protein level.
Hope this info is helpful to some :mrgreen:
1. Bedding - DONT use pine or cedar, they can be toxic to your ratties. Newspaper and newspaper products are rat friendly but dont do much in the way of odor control and can become saturated with urine. Same goes for just about everything that comes in a bag and is fluffy, puffy and multicolored. The harder pelleted bedding can be tough on rat tootsies..my suggestion is to either go with a corn-cob or corn-coblike bedding (kaytee soft sorbent)and add a little of the crinkled paper bedding so they can nest if they like. If u have easy access and dont mind laundering, fleece makes a nice cage bottom liner too (remember to factor in time and work for fleece since u will have to change the cage at least twice a week if u fleece. Daily shake-outs of solid waste helps keep the cage clean tho.)
2. Odor Control DONT add any type of chemical odor control to your bedding - IF and only IF they are in an open cage and not an aquarium type set up, u can toss in some crushed dried rosepetals or even some dried lavendar buds (Which both can be purchased in bulk from a soapmaking company called Wholesale Supplies Plus for a verrrry reasonable price) DO buy one of those lovely automatic scent sprayers but make sure it is far away from the ratties and pointed away from them ..pick up some Odor Neurtralizing spray from Lysol to go into your automatic sprayer (Lysol brand cans will also go into the Glade Sprayers , same goes for Air Wick) Set your sprayer to go off every 30 mins and u have 2 months of "Ahhhhhh" Remember to do a daily or at the most every-2 day cleaning of solid waste and remove any uneaten fresh foods ie fruits and veggies daily from the cage. Once a month give your ratties a bath -especially your boys :lol:
3. DO buy a dustbuster - it makes picking up kicked out corncob and tossed out seeds so much easier.
4. DO buy an inexpensive small cage for official cage cleaning days - it makes life so much easier in keeping the ratties in one place and seriously cuts down the chance of "oops" litters if u have more than one gender of rats. They double nicely as 'hospital' cages and are also a comfortable carrier.
5. DO make sure your rat has a rattie friend .. rats are social and need the company of other rats for play, grooming and socialization. Make sure u are keeping it to same sex pairs-even very young rats can breed.
6. DO make sure your rattie has places to climb, sights to see and things to do. Rats are very curious and easily bored :shock: Give them hammocks and ledges to make sure their cage is multileveled and they have places to explore and hang out. DO make sure u cover any bar-like ledges with some plastic canvas so your babies dont develop bumblefoot..For extra ledging, u can invest in some snap on gutter protectors (Sweer makes a very nice brand that a lot of hardware stores carry -they are just the right size for ledges and can easily be connected to cage bars via plastic tie wraps) U can also invest in a rabbit or ferret corner litter pan that can hang on the top levels of your cage - the ratties love to use it as a bed and if u are lucky and can get the one from SuperPet that has the wire bar grating on it (they call it a litter filter), u can take that, put some plastic canvas on it and tie wrap that sucker up to give your babies another corner ledge.
7 DO make sure u have the name of a good "exotic" pet vet BEFORE your pet gets sick. Rats metabolisms are very fast and they can be taken down very quickly by an illness.
8. DO make sure u do some homework on food for your rat. Suebee has a wonderful recipe for a food blend that u can google-up. My rats love it :happydance: There are also other great nutritional blends of food out there that u can whip up for your rat, which when u add some fresh veggies, fruits and some occasional cooked meat and pasta -will make sure your pet is healthy, happy and unbored. DONT give into the temptation to overfeed your ratties sweet tooth. Keep the chocolate to yourself (and beware peanut butter, your baby can choke on it if its not mixed with something else) DO get into the kitchen and make/bake some of your rattie treats! u will kno exactly whats in them and i swear your ratties will appreciate them even more than the store bought kind -same goes for whipping up your own rat recipe of food .. Mine do -
PS Rats love mealworms -as in eating them. Dont overdo it tho as u want to watch the protein level.
Hope this info is helpful to some :mrgreen: