The Rat Room

I take great pride in my rat room and  thought I'd share my set up and practices.

Rat Room

My rat room is a bedroom located right off my living room, which allows me to spend a lot of time around my rats.

This is just to the left of the door to the rat room.  My Flemish Giant rabbit, Parker is in the giant cage against the wall.  He gets free run of the rat room when I am home.  Above him are the rosettes from the rat shows that I have attended.  The flats are in a box in the closet, because I don't know how to display them yet.  Just next to Parker is my Ferret Nation, that has two groups of boys in it.

The far wall of the rat room contains all my Martin's cages.  There are five cages of girls and one cage of boys.  Underneath the table is where the food and bedding is stored.

There is a full bathroom connected to the rat room, which makes it easy to scrub out cages in the tubs.  I have a whiteboard on the bathroom door which is where I keep notes of upcoming breeding plans, or at the moment a weight chart for a pregnant doe.

Caging

I currently using Martin's cages and a Ferret Nation in the rat room.  I absolutely love Martin's cages and would easily recommend to anyone.  I use mostly the 680 model, as it provides me with enough space for 4-5 boys or several girls.  The door is wide enough that I can fit a Wobust Wodent Wheel in and out for cleaning with out disassembling it.  I have never had a problem with any of the rats having foot problems or getting any feet caught in the bars.

Food

I feed my rats mostly Harlan Teklad lab blocks.  I feel very strongly that rats should get balanced, quality nutrition in every bite.  I think that while the homemade mixes are fun to make, but the rats have a tendency to pick out what they want to eat and not necessary get what they need.  Harlan is not commercially available and can sometimes be hard for some owners to locate.  I am more then happy to help anyone locate Harlan, but there are some decent substitutes.  Oxbow makes a product called Regal Rat, Mazuri makes several different rodent formulas and Purina makes a Lab Diet that is readily available through Soldan's.

I feed my rats in hoppers that are made out of gladware containers.  The rats are able to get what they need with out hording the blocks and peeing on them.  My rats have no problem accessing their food.

Water

I use 32 oz Water Buddy water bottles in all my cages.  This way I can guarantee that my rats have plenty of clean fresh water at all times.  The Water Buddy bottles tend not to drip excessively in the cage, due to the lack of a ball.

Bedding

I use Harlan's Sani-chips, CareFresh, and/or Kitty Soft (cheaper version of Yesterday's News) depending on what is in stock and price.  All the beddings are safe for rats, do not contain soft wood and have good odor control.  

Hammocks

All cages have hammocks, depending on whether the rats want them up or not.  I've been surprised at how many rats a hammock will actually hold.

Toys and Enrichment

Cages are given different toys an enrichment items on a rotating basis to keep the rats entertained.