A suitable home-cage
Your rats will need a large cage which can accommodate their needs – rats are active and need space to run, stretch up on their hind legs, climb and explore. They're highly curious and inquisitive, and love exploring. Make sure their cage is escape-proof, as they're good at squeezing through gaps in their cage – especially young rats!
You should make sure your rats have choice and control in their environment – if they can't control and predict events in their surroundings, rats can get stressed.
The home-cage cage should:
- Be as large as possible, with lots of space so that your rats can perform all natural behaviours, including providing your rats with a choice of where to go to the toilet.
- Include complex and enriched space, with a variety of horizontal and vertical barriers (walls and platforms), objects (tunnels, ropes, hammocks), materials (wood, cloth, paper tissues) and structures (ladders, shelters) to encourage your rats to explore and exercise. However, the enrichment shouldn't take over the entire cage space.
- Provide places to hide, climb and investigate at different heights within the cage.
- Have a solid floor, not wire mesh, as wire floors can lead to foot problems.
- Be safe and secure and not allow your rats to escape – regularly check that their cage is still intact as rats can chew through some materials such as wood and plastic. The bar spacing should be small enough to stop your rats from being able to poke their head through – once the head is through the whole body will follow!
- Be free from any projections which may harm your rats.
- In the same place – don't move their cage unless absolutely necessary, as this can be stressful for them.
- Away from strong artificial smells such as air fresheners or smoke. Rats have a very good sense of smell.
Make sure that the temperature, humidity and light levels are right. Their home-cage should be:
- Kept in an area of the house which does not get very hot or cold (not in a conservatory, garage or shed). An ideal temperature for rats is 19–23°C.
- Kept away from extremes of humidity (i.e. not kept in bathrooms or in air conditioned rooms).
- Away from dirty or dusty environments.
- Well ventilated but kept out of draughts.
- Moved to a cooler area if summer temperatures are high.
- Out of direct sunlight. Keep their cage in an area of your home that's not too bright during the day, out of direct sunlight, and dark at night. Rats are naturally most active at night and are very sensitive to light; bright light can cause stress and harm their eyes, particularly albino strains (red-eyed white rats).
Make sure that their home-cage is kept away from high pitched sounds, ultrasound, long-term and unpredictable, sudden bursts of noise. Do not house them near:
- Alarms, telephones, door-bells, lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, stereos or speakers, or high-pressure hoses.
- Electrical equipment (such as computer screens and TVs).
- Anywhere where water might run into metal containers (such as a kitchen sink).
- Any other high-pitched or sudden bursts of sound.
Cage cleaning
Rats are clean animals, preferring to keep toilet areas separate from sleeping, resting and feeding areas. Make sure you keep their cage clean and do not allow urine and faeces to build up as this can cause health problems.
Clean out the cage regularly once a week to prevent the build-up of droppings and urine. Do this when the rats are awake and not in the middle of the day, when your rats are sleeping, as this disturbance can be stressful for them.
You can also spot-clean throughout the week. Removing faeces, soiled bedding and uneaten food which is likely to go off will help you keep the cage clean for longer.
When cleaning out the cage, leave a handful of unsoiled clean nesting material behind to keep some familiar smells within the cage. Don’t use air fresheners or other products with strong artificial smells.
Rat fact: rats are very clean animals
Rats often spend hours grooming themselves or each other. It's now thought that the Great Plague of 1665 was spread by human lice and fleas and not by rats.
Shelters
Make sure you give your rats suitable shelters and places to hide. Rats have an excellent sense of touch, preferring to hug walls rather than enter open spaces where they can't hide.
Each rat must always have access to a safe, dark, hiding place where they can escape if they feel afraid, where they can build a nest and sleep and rest, and where they can get out of the light.
Make sure that multiple shelters are available in their home cage to avoid competition with their cage-mates, and to allow them to choose where they rest. Ideally, the number of available shelters should exceed the number of rats by one. Any shelter must have multiple exits, and should allow all rats to sleep inside should they wish to sleep together.
Large cardboard tubes make good shelters as they not only provide rats somewhere to hide, but rats also like to chew and manipulate them.
Bedding material
Rats spend lots of time sleeping and like to hide and sleep in safe, dark shelters. They often have preferred resting sites. Make sure you provide your rats with a generous layer of suitable bedding material, such as wood chips (non-aspen), cellulose-based chips or shredded filter paper. Avoid dusty bedding materials such as sawdust, and any bedding which is made of aspen as these can result in breathing and other health problems.
Avoid using over-absorbent bedding material as they can reduce humidity levels resulting in health problems. Don’t use fragrant and coloured bedding material either.
Nesting material
All rodents need nesting material to regulate their body temperature. Rats also like making their own nests and spend lots of time playing with nesting material.
Provide your rats with a variety of different nesting materials to give them a choice over what they use and so they can build good nests. Rats enjoy shredding nesting materials such as white tissue paper, and other suitable materials are hay, shredded paper and paper strips.
Don’t use highly absorbent materials, or materials that separate into thin strands such as cotton wool or similar fluffy bedding products, as they pose a serious risk to their health and welfare. There is concern that this material can cause harm if eaten, and thin strands that form in this material can be difficult to break. It can lead to a rat becoming tangled up in their bedding, and/or the loss of circulation in tangled limbs resulting in amputation or, unfortunately, euthanasia.
Rat fact: a group of rats is called a mischief
Rats are mainly nocturnal and live underground, but they're also great at climbing and swimming. Pet rats need time outside of their cage to explore and enjoy themselves, but always keep a close eye on them to make sure they don't hurt themselves.
