Timeless Tails Rattery
My "wall of rats" contains from left top to right bottom: 4 R695's: 3 are my "girls" cages, 1 is for boys. Also there is an R680 (empty in the picture but now in use) . Along with my "extra/spare" white/blue cages I use for young litters (about 2.5-5 weeks old) while they are learning to climb or hospital cages. I keep tarps/sheets on the walls as I like to protect the paint from pee/food splatter as ratties can be messy sometimes (especially when you feed them mushy food, berries, other messy foods :)), this makes clean up easier. I can just wipe down the tarp or pull down the sheets and wash them. To protect the carpet I have plastic runners below the cages, the kind you can buy in rolls that have "pegs" to stay put on carpet. Its what people use to put on carpet near desks to making rolling desk chairs work better. This is also easy to wipe down in case of spills and keeps the carpet protected :) |
| Then on the far right of the "rat wall" I have my two nursery tanks for delivery and the first couple weeks of the babies lives :) After the babies open their eyes they are moved into a larger cage where they can start climbing/have more room to play and mom can have more places to "hide" from her young! |
On the opposite wall I have my 2 story (4 levels total when you count shelves) Ferret Nation, modified w/ 1/2 by 1/2 inch wire lining it so I can put younger rats in it. Currently this is my main boys cage, holding most of my boys. You can see some of the boys enjoying the multi level fleeced lined cage along w/the multiple hammocks and hanging cubes :). Recently, I created larger pans for the FN cage. The Fleece lining of the shelves, and stuff getting everywhere was driving me NUTS! I called around plastic places that make custom pans/they were telling me it would be like $80 for each pan!!!!! Quality Cages and Martins didnt have pans that fit the FN, and the FN sites only had the 1/2 inch or so deep pans that came with the cage... So I looked online a bit, and found a way to make a cage pan out of Coroplast (it's like corrugated cardboard but made out of plastic, used for signs). I followed the directions on making a pan, made the sides about 5 inches high. Since it is plastic there is of course the possibilitiy of chewing, but so far not much has occured. It has worked out well so I can put bedding in the bottome of the cage and only fleece line the shelves. I now can "alternate" fleece lined shelves/pans if I want with the bedding/pan floor...its be great to allow myself that flexibility I didnt have before on the FN. In addition to the cages pictured, I also have several spare cages including a Large Deluxe Collapsable Quality cage, another small white/blue cage which works well as a hospital cage, and a Quality cage with larger bar spacing that is really made for Cavy's but works well for adult rats. As well as several rubbermaid type containers that are converted (wire mesh added to lids) to travel tubs/litter tubs. I have never had to utilize all the cages at once, but I do like having extra cage space available in case of an "influx" of rats, multiple litters being raised at once, or rescue situations. The extra cages are stored in the garage/and spare closet until they are needed. |
Recently I created a Rattie Play Pen. I have 2 cats, so any sort of "free range time" is hard to do w/out fear of someone getting to an area they shouldnt be in..every time I had tried it I was nervous the whole time (even w/the room door shut) as due to human error I lost a baby once when putting ratties back in their cages, i apparently missed one and the outcome was a terrible loss of a rattie to one of my old cats! So I decided they needed an enclosed playpen that cats couldnt get into at all! I took a 55 gallon rubbermaid container, converted the lid by cutting a large section out, replacing it with 1/2 X 1/2 inch vinyl coated wire, and creating a large flip top door. The rubbermaid lid is really hard to remove, so it was important to me that the wire door allowed enough space for me to put toys in/get at all corners to get ratties out, and have a lot of visibility. Inside I lay down some fleece and have several plastic "ferret" trails, balls, boxes, ropes, and other toys I will switch around. The ratties get to play in here during cage cleaning as well as other "outside of cage" time. So far it has been a hit! |
Roscoe & Mike Wazowski |
Alvin, Beavis, & Archie 3 of the 4 brothers from LMR |
Bart & Archie of the LMR 4 brothers (Archie seems to be in every Pic I take of them!) |
Boo, Jenny, Thumper, Georgette, & Brown Bear enjoying the play pen! |