Rattitude.

This weekend, Coffee is going to help me take some decent pictures of the rats. It’s difficult to take a decent, non-blurry picture when the rats are running around and refusing to sit still. Every time I think I’ve got a good focus, one of them dashes away and hides underneath something. Nin has gained a lot of weight since arriving (which is good – she’s very healthy) and Tasha is currently growing her adult coat (which she will, I am told, shortly shed – she’s a double-rex). BigRat, who Coffee has not yet named, remains timid and shy but quite friendly when forced to interact with me.

The cage is nearing completion – the bulk of the work is done. I’ve been watching what the rats like to do in each section and learning more about their behaviour, all of which allows me to add bits and pieces to the cage as needed. I wanted the space to be well-planned and useful. This weekend I’ll be adding in a few more hammocks and tubes for the rats to climb on and sleep in, along with some extra boxes. The favoured ‘toy’ at the moment is a box of $0.99 kleenex that I placed into one of the rooms. This morning all of the tissues had been ripped out of the box, fluffed up and I couldn’t see into that particular ‘room’ of the cage. Tasha is to blame for that, I suspect.

The rats are fabulous to watch – I’m so glad we adopted them. They’re funny, they’re smart, they’re loving and they’re absolute party animals all night long. Nothing amazes me as much as how tidy the cage is before bed and how everything seems to explode before dawn. The rats are all curled up asleep when I venture in to examine the damage. All in good fun.

Here are a few photos of the cage that I took a while back. There are 4 levels with a total of 8 rooms. Each level has a ladder going up, and the bottom level features flexible ‘dryer’ tubing for added fun, and a rope ladder that allows them to access a very high hole between rooms. It’s stunning how quickly all of the rats are able to run from the bottom to the top, and it’s great fun to watch them waddle up and down the ladders. When the cage is complete, I’ll post individual room shots so you can see the ‘features’. All told, Coffee did some mighty good work on this cage.

In the meantime, here are two photos:

This is what the cage looks like closed. It’s currently in a corner of my master ensuite.
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These are the top two ‘floors’. The top right corner is the sleeping room – filled with soft towels, a ferret-sized hanging cloth tube (which all 3 rats pile into for naps together). The top left is a feeding room – with rocks thrown in for interesting texture. The rats have water in a bottle and a bowl, and this is where I feed them vegetables. The bottom right room (in the picture) is where the dry food bowls are kept – there are usually two – one for lab blocks and one for cereals, grains and cheerios. The bottom left (in the picture) is a box stuffed with kleenex that Tasha enjoys hiding food in. The litter box is also partially visible in that room.