Rat Care Sheet
Cages: Rats need to be housed in multiple level wire cages, with a flat bottom and shelves to protect their feet from bumble foot. If the bottom and/or shelves are wire it can be easily fixed by adding some boxes or cardboard that will need to be replaced regularly that will give them a place to sit off of the wire. You can also buy some fleece and sew a couple of pieces together to make like a carpet for them that you can Velcro to their shelves. A great place to look for cages is http://martinscages.com/products/cages/rat/ the 4th cage down on that list is perfect for 2 rats. If you want more than two rats you can find out how big of a cage you will need by used the cage calculator at http://www.rattycorner.com/odds/calc.shtml.
Bedding: Aspen or care fresh is good choices to choose for your ratties. Never use pine or cedar as they have toxins in the wood and too much dust that can cause your new friends to get a repository infection. You can find some good bedding at www.thecraftyrat.com.
Diet: I feed my rats a grain diet located at http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html. But that is not the only thing you can feed them, you also need lab blocks or a high quality dog food. You can buy lab blocks for 5 dollars for 5 pounds at www.thecraftyrat.com. You also need to feed them fresh fruits and veggies. But beware of certain things such as boys cannot eat oranges. You can find a good list of good and bad foods at http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html.
Buddies: Rats prefer to be in pairs or more. Lone rats can become very depressed and even prone to illness. Just think if you lived in the back bedroom of the house and only had one visitor a day for only a few hours. Wouldn’t you rather have someone to keep you company when you visitor leaves? They can keep each other warm on the cold nights, share each others food, and have lots of play together.
Grooming: Rats are very clean animals. They are kind of like cats when it comes to grooming. You can give them a bath a few times a year if you wish, or if you think they need one. Provide plenty of stuff to chew on to make sure they can keep the length of their teeth down to a proper length. Clip nails whenever necessary. Some vets will clip their nails at the standard rates for dogs.
Contact me if you have any more questions.
To see who we have available look under the Rats for Adoption page, and Rescues page.