Housing When it comes to choosing what size home your going to buy for your rats, please buy the largest enclosure you can possibly afford. If you had the choice between living in a space that is the size of your bathroom or living in a space that is the size of your entire house, we think you would choose the latter of the two. So would your rats. Remember they have to spend a bulk of their lives in this confined space, so be generous. What is too Small? The absolute minimum amount of space that you should provide for your rats, is a total "walkable area" of at least 288 inches per rat. So if you have two rats, their enclosure should have at least 576 inches of "walkable area". "Walkable area" includes the floor and any levels the enclosure might have. To figure out the total number in inches of "walkable area" that an enclosure has, take the floor's width by depth in inches and times it times each other. Then, if the enclosure has an additional level, take the width and depth of it in inches and times it times each other. Do the same for any additional levels. Now add all of those figures together. The resulting total is the total number in inches of "walkable area" that that enclosure has. Example #1 - You find an aquarium that is 32" x 20" x 24" high. This means the floor in it is 32" x 20". It has no additional levels. 32 x 20 equals 640. This enclosure has a total number in inches of "walkable area" of 640". This is suitable for two rats. Example #2 - You find a cage that is 24" x 18" x 48" high. Not only does it have the floor level of 24" x 18", it also has two additional levels in it that are each 12" x 18". 24 x 18 equals 432. 12 x 18 equals 216. 432 + 216 + 216 equals 864. This enclosure has a total number in inches of "walkable area" of 864". A nice cage for three rats. What Kind of Enclosure Should I Buy? There are two main types of enclosures you can buy for your rats - a tank or a cage. They both have pros and cons. They are as follows... Tanks... PROS: Rats can't kick their litter out onto the floor. Because all glass tanks are safe for rats, and every large pet store carries a big selection of them, they are an easy home to find for your rats. It's easier to watch your ratties play through glass. No wire floors. Tanks are a safer environment for breeding rats, and for elderly rats that have trouble moving around. CONS: They have horrible ventilation. It is critical that you clean them much more frequently than a cage due to their poor ventilation. An ammonia smell can build up and damage your rats' lungs. Glass tanks contain heat, so in a hot climate your rats could bake to death in them. To get the same amount of space, they are usually more expensive than cages. They are impossible to attach toys to. They are heavy, hard to carry, and easily broken. When Buying a Tank... You can choose any suitable sized glass tank (fish or lizard) for your rats' home. You will need to buy a properly sized mesh lid for your tank. Be sure you have a way to securely attach it to the tank, either through clips, or whatever, so that your rats can't lift up the top and get out. Be wary if you have cats. They may try and sleep on the mesh lid and end up falling right through it. NEVER use the solid lids with florescent lights! Your rats will suffocate! When choosing the biggest tank for your money, try to purchase one with the widest width and depth to it's dimensions. Height is just wasted space for your rats since they can't climb smooth glass. If the tank is big enough, you can use a dust pan to aid you in cleaning out dirty litter. If the tank is big enough, you can use vegetable bins/office trays to add more levels to it. Wire Cages... PROS: They have great ventilation. They are easy to attach and rearrange toys and dishes to. Cages are generally cheaper. Rats love climbing up the sides. Wire cages often have more than one level, effectively doubling the amount of space it has. CONS: Rats can make a mess pushing litter out through the cage bars onto the floor. Not all cages out there are safe for ratty habitation. This makes it more difficult to find an appropriate home. When Buying a Cage... You want to look for wire cages that are chrome, powder coated, stainless steel, or PVC coated. You cannot use a cage with plain galvanized wire. The zinc in the uncoated bars is toxic for your rats as they chew on them, and their urine will corrode it. If you find that perfect cage but it's galvanized, or if you want to make your own cage out of galvanized chicken wire, you can have it powder coated yourself. Look in the phone book under metal finishers, and see if you can find one that is willing to powder coat it for you. The bar spacing of the cage MUST be 1/2" or less. Any wider and your rats could squeeze right through the bars and escape. Most ferret and rabbit cages aren't appropriate for this reason. You don't need to stick to just the "rat" section when looking for your cage. You also have a chance of finding a suitable rat cage in cages normally meant for; birds, chinchilla, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, and even some ferret and rabbit cages can work. Be sure that if you buy a cage with a door that doesn't latch securely, such as a bird cage, that you buy a metal clip or use wire to keep it tightly closed. Rats can be very smart about opening things. You will also want to make sure that a bird cage doesn't have any other obvious exits, such as slide out dishes and trays. A rat could push these out and escape, so they need to be somehow secured before use. Try to avoid cages that have wire floors. These floors are HIGHLY uncomfortable for your rats to walk on. Rats do not have fur padding on the bottom of their feet like rabbits do for protection. Also, under debate, is that wire floors cause bumblefoot. Bumblefoot is the development of painful sores on the bottom of your rat's feet. There are many solutions to fixing a cage which has wire floors. If the floor itself has a wire cover to it, simply remove it, with wire cutters if necessary. If the cage also has additional levels made out of wire, you can cover them with something solid. Effective things you can use include linoleum, plexi glass, ceramic tiles, and plastic sewing mesh. For our cage we cover the wire floors first with linoleum cut to fit and then we lay fleece over that to be soft for the rats and to soak up their pee. We put fleece in the bottom of the cage and then place a litter pan in there for them to go to the bathroom in. A ceramic tile used to cover a portion of the wire floor. Plastic sewing mesh used to cover the floor. If you choose a bird cage for your rats' cage, it won't have any extra levels built into it, but you can always create your own homemade levels for the cage. One method is to hang pieces of cut linoleum in the cage using simple shower hooks. Another really great method of adding some additional levels to a cage is to use plastic kitty litter pans. They come in various sizes to fit any cage, and unlike the linoleum, you can spread litter in them to absorb urine. All you need to do is drill holes into the sides of the litter box and attach it to the cage using zip ties. A final option is to use those small animal "litter pan corners" which you can find at most pet shops. They conveniently already have hooks built into the backs of them to be easily hung in any corner of your rats' cage. A new level we created out of linoleum. We added grommets to the corners and hung it up using cheep shower hooks. You can use bird ladders, found in any pet store, to give your rats access to their new levels. If you do insist on using a cage with wire floors without covering them, the holes in the floor must be no bigger than 1/2" x 1/2". If the spacing is any larger than that, your rat's feet can fall through the holes, get caught, and become broken in their panic. Whatever you end up doing, make sure none of the cage is made out of wood. Rats can chew right through wood. Also, any flooring in the cage must be waterproof. Miscellaneous... What do we prefer? We've used both, and we prefer wire cages over tanks. Over all they can provide a much more fun environment for your rats, and they are healthier for them. Where can you find your rats a new enclosure? You can look at pet stores, the internet, garage sales, classifieds, Ebay, and humane societies. Our "Links" section lists many online stores which sell cages.