pictures of my new rat cage...

[ratcreature]

I finished assembling the rat cage, and while I don't have all the things for its interior yet, it's already obvious that it'll be much nicer for rats than the old one. For me too, because it'll be much easier to clean than my current cage, which I have to take apart for that.

I'm really pleased with the cage, even though at the moment it takes up all the space in the middle of the room where I assembled it, as the place where it's supposed to go in the other room is still occupied by my current cage. Unfortunately that will be the case for a while longer because the breeder advised that Ben and the eventual newcomers would have an easier time with each other if their home was new for all of them, if that was an option. I considered not assembling it yet, but the parts took up room too (if slightly less) and I also wanted to see whether all the parts were alright and fit together okay. I assembled it on a board with wheels so I can move it without problems at least, if I want to do anything in that room, like getting to the comics, watering the plant and the like.

So, first a "before picture" showing the ca. 65kg of metal parts I schlepped up five flights of stairs on Friday:


After figuring out the instructions -- which thankfully weren't more complicated than for a piece of IKEA furniture, though unfortunately the pictures didn't show the screws, nuts and bolts and I had to figure out which parts were meant by the instruction sheet when it talked about things like "Ringnutbolzen", but mostly any part fit only in one kind of place so it was easier than expected -- and a couple of hours work I finally ended up with a cage that even looked like advertised:


The lower two modules both have an inserted floor like this:


The openings between the modules (you can see the holes on the picture above) can be closed with either a solid barrier, a barrier with wire mesh if you want different groups of rats to be able to see and smell each other through them to get them used to each other or left open. So if I should have bad luck and Ben won't get along with the future new rats I could let them get used to each other slowly, or even keep them apart permanently without any problems or having to accommodate more than one cage in the room.

I chose the upper module without an inserted floor to turn it into a more free-style play area with room to put a larger climbing branch somewhere in the cage and maybe some longer winding plastic tubes, since my rats so far all have loved tubes a lot:


And because Ben looked ridiculously cute when he fell asleep next to me on my pillow:

---

Finally, for the last day of that food log meme, today I ate:

• a latte, two slices of pumpkin seed bread, one with plum jam, the other with cream cheese and strawberry jam, for breakfast
• a satsuma, a banana and another latte during the morning
• three pancakes (one with strawberry jam, one with plum jam, and one with banana slices and cinnamon as toppings) for lunch
• a bowl of leftover butternut squash risotto with a piece of garlic bread for dinner

P.S.: Does anybody else get weird errors on all LJ scrapbook pages, i.e. specifically for me the page only partially loads and says "[Error: Can't locate object method "can_use_sms" via package "FB::User" at /home/lj/cgi-bin/LJ/Nav.pm line 114. ]"? I mean, I can upload and edit pictures, mostly what doesn't load is the navigation, but it's still annoying.

Comments

[eruthros]

awwwww! sleeping Ben!rat!

And the cage looks excellent for them.

[ratcreature]

It really is a cool cage. So many rodent cages you from pet stores are just total crap. And I don't just mean that they're far too small, though many are (I'm always appalled into what kind of cages some people apparently squeeze their goldhamster), but that they're hard to clean, that you can't easily get to the animals, because the doors are tiny...

And a few years back I had tried to build one myself for the rats I had then, but since it's not like I can work metal I had to use wood, and even if there hadn't been the problem of my dubious DIY skills, wood is just not that great for a rodent cage, since no matter how thoroughly you treat it, the urine will eventually soak into the wood after you use it for a year or two, if only because they'll chew on the wood and its coating in some places, and eventually it won't get clean properly anymore.

This one was manufactured by a metal working company that developed their line of cages to be especially suited for rats (though they work for other small rodents too), and was somewhat expensive, but considering the size of the cage not that much more than something from a pet store, and it really is more practical and looks better too.

Nice Cage

[(Anonymous)]

Dumb question, but my ratties would love something like that so ... where can I find one.

I keep the boys in three wire cages that I've cut and rigged together not that they are ever in it much. That looks functional, lots of room for their toys.

Re: Nice Cage

[ratcreature]

Well, I bought the cage from a small metal working company that produces this line of cages they developed:
http://www.uni-dom.de/unishopger/index.php
(The site is in German, I don't think they distribute internationally.)

[brownbetty]

Aw. Ben is all all circular! He sleeps just like my mouse. (Back when I had a mouse.)

[ratcreature]

Heh. When he hasn't ursurped a warm, soft place next to me he prefers to roll up into a tight ball like a hedgehog with his head under his belly, unless it's very warm that is, in summer he slept all stretched out. He never used to like sleeping in my bed or snuggled up to me, but I think currently I'm the substitute rat or something. He wants to groom me a lot too.

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that's an amazing cage!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I was sick of the crappy pet store cages, and in this one I could eventually also keep a small group of a few rats rather than just two without them feeling cramped. And really, that I won't have to disassemble any of the main parts of the cage just to clean it was a big draw too. With my current one I always have to take off the wire top from the plastic base, which is a nuisance and it takes a lot of time too. With that one I can just open the doors, change the newspapers and litter boxes and wipe the metal down, and the only potentially fiddly parts remaining will be cleaning their toys and tubes and stuff every now an then, because obviously I'd still have to take those out.

[catmoran.livejournal.com]

Aw, how cute all snuggled up! (Is that a flannel pillowcase?)

[ratcreature]

Yeah, he can be really adorable when he wants to (it helps when he is asleep and not chewing on things *g*). The pillowcase is just plain cotton.

[meret.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's impressive! And cute pic of Ben. :)

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I look forward to getting the stuff for the cage interior and will finally have a really nice one.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

That's an adorable picture of Ben. And the cage looks nice, even if there's a lot of construction needed. :)

[ratcreature]

I'll certainly get the time back eventually with all the hours I save when I don't have to take apart my cage for cleaning anymore, and it really wasn't harder than an IKEA wardrobe. Actually a bit easier since at least there was no problem to assemble it straight, while the last time I got an IKEA shelf it collapsed on me three times because I build it alone and had nobody to hold some of the parts up while I connected the others and it ended up standing slightly crooked too...